Method for reporting beam failure of terminal in wireless communication system, and terminal and base station for supporting same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are: a method for reporting a beam failure of one secondary cell (SCell) from among one or more SCells in a wireless communication system including (i) a base station, which includes one primary cell (PCell) and the one or more SCells, and (ii) a terminal; and a terminal and a base station for supporting same. According to one embodiment applicable to the present disclosure, a terminal reports, to a base station, a beam failure of a first SCell by using a combination of channel state information (CSI) related to the beam failure of the first SCell, and, in response thereto, the base station can recognize the beam failure of the first SCell through a combination of the CSI.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method of reporting beam failure for one of one or more secondary cells (SCells), and a user equipment (UE) and a base station (BS) supporting the same in a wireless communication system including (i) a BS including one primary cell (PCell) and the one or more SCells and (ii) a UE.

BACKGROUND ART

Wireless access systems have been widely deployed to provide various types of communication services such as voice or data. In general, a wireless access system is a multiple access system that supports communication of multiple users by sharing available system resources (a bandwidth, transmission power, etc.) among them. For example, multiple access systems include a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) system, a time division multiple access (TDMA) system, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, and a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system.

As more communication devices have demanded higher communication capacity, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication technology relative to legacy radio access technology (RAT) has been introduced. In addition, a communication system considering services/UEs sensitive to reliability and latency as well as massive machine type communication (MTC) for providing various services anytime and anywhere by connecting a plurality of devices and objects to each other has been introduced. Thus, eMBB communication, massive MTC, ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC), etc. have been introduced and various configurations therefor have been proposed.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

The present disclosure provides a method of reporting beam failure by a user equipment (UE), and a UE and a base station (BS) supporting the same in a wireless communication system.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the objects that could be achieved with the present disclosure are not limited to what has been particularly described hereinabove and the above and other objects that the present disclosure could achieve will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description.

Technical Solution

The present disclosure provides a method of reporting beam failure by a user equipment (UE), and a UE and a base station (BS) supporting the same in a wireless communication system.

According to an example of the present disclosure, a method of reporting beam failure (BF) by a user equipment (UE) connected to one primary cell (PCell) and at least one secondary cell (SCell) in a wireless communication system includes detecting occurrence of BF in a first SCell among the at least one SCell, and reporting the BF of the first SCell to a base station (BS) by transmitting, to the BS, channel state information (CSI) information related to the BF of the first SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting for the first SCell. The CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.

In the present disclosure, the configured uplink resources may include physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources configured for CSI reporting for the first SCell.

In the present disclosure, the configured uplink resources may include physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources configured for CSI reporting for the first SCell.

In the present disclosure, the uplink resources may be configured on an uplink carrier of the PCell.

In the present disclosure, when a rank indicator (RI) and a channel quality indicator (CQI) are included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include (i) a CQI index having a specific value and (ii) an RI having a maximum available value.

In the present disclosure, when a CQI is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include a CQI index having a specific value.

In the present disclosure, when a layer 1-reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an RSRP index having a minimum value.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-RSRP is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an RSRP index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.

In the present disclosure, when a layer 1-signal to interference noise ratio (L1-SINR) is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an SINR index having a minimum value.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-SINR is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an SINR index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.

In the present disclosure, the first SCell may include an SCell configured for the UE, for downlink reception and uplink transmission or an SCell configured for the UE, for downlink reception only.

In the present disclosure, the detection of occurrence of BF in a first SCell may include declaring one occurrence of a BF instance by a physical layer of the UE, based on the quality of all physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signals related to the first SCell being equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and declaring BF by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, based on a predetermined number of occurrences of the BF instance.

According to another example of the present disclosure, a UE operating based on one PCell and at least one SCell in a wireless communication system includes at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, at least one processor, and at least one memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions which when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform a specific operation. The specific operation includes detecting occurrence of BF in a first SCell among the at least one SCell, and reporting the BF of the first SCell to a BS by transmitting, to the BS, CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting for the first SCell. The CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.

In the present disclosure, the UE may communicate with at least one of a mobile terminal, a network, or an autonomous driving vehicle other than a vehicle including the UE.

According to another example of the present disclosure, a BS including one PCell and at least one SCell in a wireless communication system includes at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, at least one processor, and at least one memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions which when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform a specific operation. The specific operation includes receiving, from a UE, CSI information related to BF of a first SCell among the at least one SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting for the first SCell, and identifying occurrence of the BF of the first SCell based on the CSI. The CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.

The above-described aspects of the present disclosure are merely a part of preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and those skilled in the art can derive and understand various embodiments reflecting the technical features of the present disclosure from the following detailed description of the present disclosure.

Advantageous Effects

Embodiments of the present disclosure have the following effects.

According to the present disclosure, a user equipment (UE) may report beam failure in a first secondary cell (SCell) to a base station (BS) without configuring dedicated uplink (UL) resources for beam failure reporting. The BS may identify the beam failure in the first SCell based on the signal received from the BS.

Accordingly, unnecessary resource allocation between the BS and the UE may be minimized, and signaling overhead may be significantly reduced.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the effects that could be achieved with the present disclosure are not limited to what has been particularly described hereinabove and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description. That is, the unintended effects in implementing the present disclosure may also be derived from the embodiments of the present disclosure by those skilled in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, provide embodiments of the present disclosure together with detail explanation. Yet, a technical characteristic of the present disclosure is not limited to a specific drawing. Characteristics disclosed in each of the drawings are combined with each other to configure a new embodiment. Reference numerals in each drawing correspond to structural elements.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating physical channels and a general signal transmission method using the physical channels.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a radio frame structure in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a slot structure in a new radio (NR) system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a self-contained slot structure in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the structure of one resource element group (REG) in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrates a synchronization block/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating an SS/PBCH block transmission structure applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a higher-layer parameter SearchSpace information element (IE) applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a higher-layer parameter CSI-ReportConfig IE applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating a random access procedure applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram illustrating a signal transmission and reception operation between multiple cells and a user equipment (UE) according to an example of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram illustrating a channel state information (CSI) reporting method of a UE according to an example of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a simplified diagram illustrating a signal flow for a network access and communication process between a UE and a base station (BS), which is applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a simplified diagram illustrating a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a simplified diagram illustrating operations of a UE and a BS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the UE according to an example of the present disclosure, and FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the BS according to an example of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 illustrates a communication system applied to the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 illustrates wireless devices applicable to the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 illustrates another example of a wireless device applied to the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 illustrates a hand-held device applied to the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 illustrates a vehicle or an autonomous driving vehicle applied to the present disclosure.

BEST MODE

The embodiments of the present disclosure described below are combinations of elements and features of the present disclosure in specific forms. The elements or features may be considered selective unless otherwise mentioned. Each element or feature may be practiced without being combined with other elements or features. Further, an embodiment of the present disclosure may be constructed by combining parts of the elements and/or features. Operation orders described in embodiments of the present disclosure may be rearranged. Some constructions or elements of any one embodiment may be included in another embodiment and may be replaced with corresponding constructions or features of another embodiment.

In the description of the attached drawings, a detailed description of known procedures or steps of the present disclosure will be avoided lest it should obscure the subject matter of the present disclosure. In addition, procedures or steps that could be understood to those skilled in the art will not be described either.

Throughout the specification, when a certain portion “includes” or “comprises” a certain component, this indicates that other components are not excluded and may be further included unless otherwise noted. The terms “unit”, “-or/er” and “module” described in the specification indicate a unit for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware, software or a combination thereof. In addition, the terms “a or an”, “one”, “the” etc. may include a singular representation and a plural representation in the context of the present disclosure (more particularly, in the context of the following claims) unless indicated otherwise in the specification or unless context clearly indicates otherwise.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a description is mainly made of a data transmission and reception relationship between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE). A BS refers to a UE node of a network, which directly communicates with a UE. A specific operation described as being performed by the BS may be performed by an upper node of the BS.

Namely, it is apparent that, in a network comprised of a plurality of network nodes including a BS, various operations performed for communication with a UE may be performed by the BS, or network nodes other than the BS. The term ‘BS’ may be replaced with a fixed station, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNode B or eNB), gNode B (gNB), an advanced base station (ABS), an access point, etc.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term UE may be replaced with a UE, a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station (SS), a mobile subscriber station (MSS), a mobile UE, an advanced mobile station (AMS), etc.

A transmission end is a fixed and/or mobile node that provides a data service or a voice service and a reception end is a fixed and/or mobile node that receives a data service or a voice service. Therefore, a UE may serve as a transmission end and a BS may serve as a reception end, on an uplink (UL). Likewise, the UE may serve as a reception end and the BS may serve as a transmission end, on a downlink (DL).

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be supported by standard specifications disclosed for at least one of wireless access systems including an institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.xx system, a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) system, a 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) system, 3GPP 5G NR system and a 3GPP2 system. In particular, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be supported by the standard specifications, 3GPP TS 38.211, 3GPP TS 38.212, 3GPP TS 38.213, 3GPP TS 38.321 and 3GPP TS 38.331. That is, the steps or parts, which are not described to clearly reveal the technical idea of the present disclosure, in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be explained by the above standard specifications. All terms used in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be explained by the standard specifications.

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description, which will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings, is intended to explain exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than to show the only embodiments that can be implemented according to the disclosure.

The following detailed description includes specific terms in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the specific terms may be replaced with other terms without departing the technical spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, 3GPP NR system is explained, which are examples of wireless access systems.

Technology described below may be applied to various wireless access systems such as code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA).

To clarify technical features of the present disclosure, embodiments of the present disclosure are described focusing upon a 3GPP NR system. However, the embodiments proposed in the present disclosure may be equally applied to other wireless systems (e.g., 3GPP LTE, IEEE 802.16, and IEEE 802.11).

1. NR System

1.1. Physical Channels and General Signal Transmission

In a wireless access system, a UE receives information from a base station on a DL and transmits information to the base station on a UL. The information transmitted and received between the UE and the base station includes general data information and various types of control information. There are many physical channels according to the types/usages of information transmitted and received between the base station and the UE.

FIG. 1 illustrates physical channels and a general signal transmission method using the physical channels, which may be used in embodiments of the present disclosure.

A UE performs initial cell search such as synchronization establishment with a BS in step S11 when the UE is powered on or enters a new cell. To this end, the UE may receive a primary synchronization channel (P-SCH) and a secondary synchronization channel (S-SCH) from the BS, establish synchronization with the BS, and acquire information such as a cell identity (ID).

Thereafter, the UE may receive a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) from the BS to acquire broadcast information in the cell.

Meanwhile, the UE may receive a DL reference signal (RS) in the initial cell search step to confirm a DL channel state.

Upon completion of initial cell search, the UE may receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) according to information included in the PDCCH to acquire more detailed system information in step S12.

Next, the UE may perform a random access procedure such as steps S13 to S16 to complete access to the BS. To this end, the UE may transmit a preamble through a physical random access channel (PRACH) (S13) and receive a random access response (RAR) to the preamble through the PDCCH and the PDSCH corresponding to the PDCCH (S14). The UE may transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). In the case of contention-based random access, a contention resolution procedure including transmission of a PRACH signal (S15) and reception of a PDCCH signal and a PDSCH signal corresponding to the PDCCH signal (S16) may be additionally performed.

The UE which has performed the above procedures may receive a PDCCH signal and/or a PDSCH signal (S17) and transmit a PUSCH signal and/or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal (S18) as a general UL/DL signal transmission procedure.

Control information that the UE transmits to the BS is referred to as uplink control information (UCI). The UCI includes a hybrid automatic repeat and request (HARD) acknowledgement (ACK)/negative ACK (NACK) signal, a scheduling request (SR), a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix index (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), or beam indication (BI) information.

In an NR system, the UCI is generally periodically transmitted on the PUCCH. However, according to an embodiment (if control information and traffic data should be transmitted simultaneously), the control information and traffic data may be transmitted on the PUSCH. In addition, the UCI may be transmitted aperiodically on the PUSCH, upon receipt of a request/command from a network.

1.2. Radio Frame Structure

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a radio frame structure in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

In the NR system, UL and DL transmissions are based on a frame as illustrated in FIG. 2. One radio frame is 10 ms in duration, defined by two 5-ms half-frames. One half-frame is defined by five 1-ms subframes. One subframe is divided into one or more slots, and the number of slots in a subframe depends on an SCS. Each slot includes 12 or 14 OFDM(A) symbols according to a CP. Each slot includes 14 symbols in a normal CP case, and 12 symbols in an extended CP case. Herein, a symbol may include an OFDM symbol (or a CP-OFDM) symbol and an SC-FDMA symbol (or a DFT-s-OFDM symbol).

Table 1 lists the number of symbols per slot, the number of slots per frame, and the number of slots per subframe in the normal CP case, and Table 2 lists the number of symbols per slot, the number of slots per frame, and the number of slots per subframe in the extended CP case.

TABLE 1 μ N_(symb) ^(slot) N_(slot) ^(frame, μ) N_(slot) ^(subframe, μ) 0 14  10  1 1 14  20  2 2 14  40  4 3 14  80  8 4 14 160 16 5 14 320 32

TABLE 2 μ N_(symb) ^(slot) N_(slot) ^(frame, μ) N_(slot) ^(subframe, μ) 2 12 40 4

In the above tables, N^(slot) _(symb) represents the number of symbols in a slot, N^(frame,μ) _(slot) represents the number of slots in a frame, and N^(frame,μ) _(slot) represents the number of slots in a subframe.

In the NR system to which the present disclosure is applicable, different OFDM(A) numerologies (e.g., SCSs, CP length, and so on) may be configured for a plurality of cells aggregated for a UE. Therefore, the (absolute) duration of a time resource (e.g., an SF, slot, or TTI) (for the convenience of description, generically referred to as a time unit (TU)) including the same number of symbols may be different between the aggregated cells.

NR supports multiple numerologies (e.g., subcarrier spacings (SCSs)) to support various 5th generation (5G) services. For example, the NR system supports a wide area in conventional cellular bands for an SCS of 15 kHz, a dense urban environment, low latency, and a wide carrier bandwidth for an SCS of 30/60 kHz, and a bandwidth wider than 24.25 GHz to overcome phase noise, for an SCS of 60 kHz or above.

An NR frequency band is defined by two types of frequency ranges, FR1 and FR2. FR1 and FR2 may be configured as described in Table 3 below. FR2 may represent millimeter wave (mmW).

TABLE 3 Frequency Range Corresponding frequency designation range Subcarrier Spacing FR1  410 MHz-7125 MHz 15, 30, 60 kHz FR2 24250 MHz-52600 MHz 60, 120, 240 kHz

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a slot structure in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

One slot includes a plurality of symbols in the time domain. For example, one slot includes 7 symbols in a normal CP case and 6 symbols in an extended CP case.

A carrier includes a plurality of subcarriers in the frequency domain. An RB is defined by a plurality of (e.g., 12) consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain.

A bandwidth part (BWP), which is defined by a plurality of consecutive (P)RBs in the frequency domain, may correspond to one numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing (SCS), CP length, and so on).

A carrier may include up to N (e.g., 5) BWPs. Data communication may be conducted in an activated BWP, and only one BWP may be activated for one UE. In a resource grid, each element is referred to as an RE, to which one complex symbol may be mapped.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a self-contained slot structures in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

In FIG. 4, the hatched area (e.g., symbol index=0) indicates a DL control region, and the black area (e.g., symbol index=13) indicates a UL control region. The remaining area (e.g., symbol index=1 to 12) may be used for DL or UL data transmission.

Based on this structure, a base station and a UE may sequentially perform DL transmission and UL transmission in one slot. That is, the base station and UE may transmit and receive not only DL data but also a UL ACK/NACK for the DL data in one slot. Consequently, this structure may reduce a time required until data retransmission when a data transmission error occurs, thereby minimizing the latency of a final data transmission.

In this self-contained slot structure, a predetermined length of time gap is required to allow the base station and UE to switch from transmission mode to reception mode and vice versa. To this end, in the self-contained slot structure, some OFDM symbols at the time of switching from DL to UL may be configured as a guard period (GP).

Although it has been described above that the self-contained slot structure includes both DL and UL control regions, these control regions may be selectively included in the self-contained slot structure. In other words, the self-contained slot structure according to the present disclosure may include either the DL control region or the UL control region as well as both the DL and UL control regions as illustrated in FIG. 4.

Further, the order of the regions in one slot may vary according to embodiments. For example, one slot may be configured in the order of DL control region, DL data region, UL control region, and UL data region, or UL control region, UL data region, DL control region, and DL data region.

A PDCCH may be transmitted in the DL control region, and a PDSCH may be transmitted in the DL data region. A PUCCH may be transmitted in the UL control region, and a PUSCH may be transmitted in the UL data region.

The PDCCH may deliver downlink control information (DCI), for example, DL data scheduling information, UL data scheduling information, and so on. The PUCCH may deliver uplink control information (UCI), for example, an ACK/NACK for DL data, channel state information (CSI), a scheduling request (SR), and so on.

The PDSCH conveys DL data (e.g., DL-shared channel transport block (DL-SCH TB)) and uses a modulation scheme such as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64QAM, or 256QAM. A TB is encoded into a codeword. The PDSCH may deliver up to two codewords. Scrambling and modulation mapping are performed on a codeword basis, and modulation symbols generated from each codeword are mapped to one or more layers (layer mapping). Each layer together with a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is mapped to resources, generated as an OFDM symbol signal, and transmitted through a corresponding antenna port.

The PDCCH carries DCI and uses QPSK as a modulation scheme. One PDCCH includes 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 control channel elements (CCEs) according to an aggregation level (AL). One CCE includes 6 resource element groups (REGs). One REG is defined by one OFDM symbol by one (P)RB.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the structure of one REG in an NR system to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable.

In FIG. 5, D represents an RE to which DCI is mapped, and R represents an RE to which a DMRS is mapped. The DMRS is mapped to REs #1, #5, and #9 along the frequency axis in one symbol.

The PDCCH is transmitted in a control resource set (CORESET). A CORESET is defined as a set of REGs having a given numerology (e.g., SCS, CP length, and so on). A plurality of CORESETs for one UE may overlap with each other in the time/frequency domain. A CORESET may be configured by system information (e.g., a master information block (MIB)) or by UE-specific higher layer (RRC) signaling. Specifically, the number of RBs and the number of symbols (up to 3 symbols) included in a CORESET may be configured by higher-layer signaling.

The PUSCH delivers UL data (e.g., UL-shared channel transport block (UL-SCH TB)) and/or UCI based on a CP-OFDM waveform or a DFT-s-OFDM waveform. When the PUSCH is transmitted in the DFT-s-OFDM waveform, the UE transmits the PUSCH by transform precoding. For example, when transform precoding is impossible (e.g., disabled), the UE may transmit the PUSCH in the CP-OFDM waveform, while when transform precoding is possible (e.g., enabled), the UE may transmit the PUSCH in the CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM waveform. A PUSCH transmission may be dynamically scheduled by a UL grant in DCI, or semi-statically scheduled by higher-layer (e.g., RRC) signaling (and/or layer 1 (L1) signaling such as a PDCCH) (configured grant). The PUSCH transmission may be performed in a codebook-based or non-codebook-based manner.

The PUCCH delivers UCI, an HARQ-ACK, and/or an SR and is classified as a short PUCCH or a long PUCCH according to the transmission duration of the PUCCH. Table 4 lists exemplary PUCCH formats.

TABLE 4 Number PUCCH Length in OFDM of format symbols N_(symb) ^(PUCCH) bits Usage Etc 0 1-2  ≤2 HARQ, SR Sequence selection 1 4-14 ≤2 HARQ, [SR] Sequence modulation 2 1-2  >2 HARQ, CSI, CP-OFDM [SR] 3 4-14 >2 HARQ, CSI, DFT-s-OFDM [SR] (no UE multiplexing) 4 4-14 >2 HARQ, CSI, DFT-s-OFDM [SR] (Pre DFT OCC)

PUCCH format 0 conveys UCI of up to 2 bits and is mapped in a sequence-based manner, for transmission. Specifically, the UE transmits specific UCI to the base station by transmitting one of a plurality of sequences on a PUCCH of PUCCH format 0. Only when the UE transmits a positive SR, the UE transmits the PUCCH of PUCCH format 0 in a PUCCH resource for a corresponding SR configuration.

PUCCH format 1 conveys UCI of up to 2 bits and modulation symbols of the UCI are spread with an OCC (which is configured differently whether frequency hopping is performed) in the time domain. The DMRS is transmitted in a symbol in which a modulation symbol is not transmitted (i.e., transmitted in time division multiplexing (TDM)).

PUCCH format 2 conveys UCI of more than 2 bits and modulation symbols of the DCI are transmitted in frequency division multiplexing (FDM) with the DMRS. The DMRS is located in symbols #1, #4, #7, and #10 of a given RB with a density of ⅓. A pseudo noise (PN) sequence is used for a DMRS sequence. For 1-symbol PUCCH format 2, frequency hopping may be activated.

PUCCH format 3 does not support UE multiplexing in the same physical resource blocks (PRBs) and conveys UCI of more than 2 bits. In other words, PUCCH resources of PUCCH format 3 do not include an OCC. Modulation symbols are transmitted in TDM with the DMRS.

PUCCH format 4 supports multiplexing of up to 4 UEs in the same PRBs and conveys UCI of more than 2 bits. In other words, PUCCH resources of PUCCH format 3 includes an OCC. Modulation symbols are transmitted in TDM with the DMRS.

1.3. Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or SS/PBCH Block

In the NR system to which the present disclosure is applicable, a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and/or a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) may be transmitted within one synchronization signal (SS) block or synchronization signal PBCH block (hereinafter, referred to as an SS block or an SS/PBCH block). In this case, multiplexing different signals within one SS block is not precluded.

The SS/PBCH block may be transmitted in a band other than the center of a system band. In particular, when a gNB supports a wideband operation, the gNB may transmit a plurality of SS/PBCH blocks.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates an SS/PBCH block applicable to the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the SS/PBCH block applicable to the present disclosure may be composed of 20 RBs in 4 consecutive symbols. The SS/PBCH block may include a PSS, an SSS, and a PBCH. A UE may perform cell search, system information acquisition, beam arrangement for initial access, and DL measurement, based on the SS/PBCH block.

Each of the PSS and the SSS includes one OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers, and the PBCH includes three OFDM symbols and 576 subcarriers. Polar coding and QPSK are applied to the PBCH. The PBCH includes data REs and DMRS REs in every OFDM symbol. There are three DMRS REs per RB, with three data REs between DMRS REs. The locations of DMRS REs may be determined based on a cell ID (e.g., a subcarrier index mapped based on the value of NcellID mode 4 may be determined.)

Further, the SS/PBCH block may be transmitted even in a frequency band other than the center frequency of a frequency band used by a network.

To this end, a synchronization raster, which is candidate frequency positions at which the UE should detect the SS/PBCH block, is defined in the NR system to which the present disclosure is applicable. The synchronization raster may be distinguished from a channel raster.

In the absence of explicit signaling of the position of the SS/PBCH block, the synchronization raster may indicate available frequency positions for the SS/PBCH block, at which the UE may acquire system information.

The synchronization raster may be determined based on a global synchronization channel number (GSCN). The GSCN may be transmitted by RRC signaling (e.g., an MIB, a system information block (SIB), remaining minimum system information (RMSI), or other system information (OSI)).

The synchronization raster is defined to be longer along the frequency axis than the channel raster and is characterized by a smaller number of blind detections than the channel raster, in consideration of the complexity of initial synchronization and a detection speed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating an SS/PBCH block transmission structure applicable to the present disclosure.

In the NR system to which the present disclosure is applicable, the gNB may transmit an SS/PBCH block up to 64 times for 5 ms. The multiple SS/PBCH blocks may be transmitted on different beams, and the UE may detect the SS/PBCH block on the assumption that the SS/PBCH block is transmitted on a specific one beam every 20 ms.

As the frequency band is higher, the gNB may set a larger maximum number of beams available for SS/PBCH block transmission within 5 ms. For example, the gNB may transmit the SS/PBCH block using up to 4 different beams at or below 3 GHz, up to 8 different beams at 3 to 6 GHz, and up to 64 different beams at or above 6 GHz, for 5 ms.

1.4. Synchronization Procedure

The UE may perform synchronization by receiving the SS block from the gNB. In this case, the synchronization procedure may mainly include a cell ID detection step and a timing detection step. In this case, the cell ID detection step may include a cell ID detection step based on a PSS and a cell ID detection step based on an SSS (e.g., one physical layer cell ID is detected from a total of 1008 physical layer cell IDs). In addition, the timing detection step may include a timing detection step based on PBCH DMRSs and a timing detection step based on PBCH content (e.g., an MIB).

For this purpose, the UE may assume that reception occasions of the PBCH, the PSS, and the SSS are present in consecutive symbols. (That is, the UE may assume that the PBCH, the PSS, and the SSS constitute the SS/BCH block as described above.) Next, the UE may assume that the SSS, the PBCH DMRS, and the PBCH data have the same energy per resource element (EPRE). In this case, the UE may assume that the ratio of PSS EPRE to SSS EPRE of the SS/PBCH block in a corresponding cell is 0 dB or 3 dB. Alternatively, when dedicated higher-layer parameters are not provided to the UE, the UE that monitors a PDCCH for DCI format 1_0 with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a system information—random network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI), a paging—random network temporary identifier (P-RNTI), or a random access—random network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) may assume that the ratio of PDCCH DMRS EPRE to SSS EPRE is −8 dB to 8 dB.

First, the UE may acquire time synchronization and a physical cell ID of a detected cell by detecting the PSS and the SSS. More specifically, the UE may acquire a symbol timing for an SS block by detecting the PSS and detect a cell ID in a cell ID group. Next, the UE detects the cell ID group by detecting the SSS.

The UE may detect a time index (e.g., a slot boundary) of an SS block from the DMRS of the PBCH. Next, the UE may acquire information about a half frame boundary and information about a system frame number (SFN) from the MIB included in the PBCH.

In this case, the PBCH may indicate that a related (or corresponding) RMSI PDCCH/PDSCH is transmitted in the same band as or a different band from the SS/PBCH block. Accordingly, the UE may receive RMSI (e.g., system information other than the MIB) transmitted in a frequency band indicated by the PBCH after decoding the PBCH or transmitted thereafter in a frequency band in which the PBCH is transmitted.

For a half frame with SS/PBCH blocks, the first symbol indexes for candidate SS/PBCH blocks are determined according to an SCS of SS/PBCH blocks as follows, where index #0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in a half-frame.

(Case A—15 kHz SCS) The first symbols of the candidate SS/PBCH blocks have indexes of {2, 8}+14*n. For carrier frequencies smaller than or equal to 3 GHz, n=0, 1. For carrier frequencies larger than 3 GHz and smaller than or equal to 6 GHz, n=0, 1, 2, 3.

(Case B—30 kHz SCS) The first symbols of the candidate SS/PBCH blocks have indexes {4, 8, 16, 32}+28*n. For carrier frequencies smaller than or equal to 3 GHz, n=0. For carrier frequencies larger than 3 GHz and smaller than or equal to 6 GHz, n=0, 1.

(Case C—30 kHz SCS) The first symbols of the candidate SS/PBCH blocks have indexes {2, 8}+14*n. For carrier frequencies smaller than or equal to 3 GHz, n=0, 1. For carrier frequencies larger than 3 GHz and smaller than or equal to 6 GHz, n=0, 1, 2, 3.

(Case D—120 kHz SCS) The first symbols of the candidate SS/PBCH blocks have indexes {4, 8, 16, 20}+28*n. For carrier frequencies larger than 6 GHz, n=0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18.

(Case E—240 kHz SCS) The first symbols of the candidate SS/PBCH blocks have indexes {8, 12, 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44}+56*n. For carrier frequencies larger than 6 GHz, n=0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.

In relation to the above operation, the UE may acquire system information (SI).

The MIB includes information/parameters for monitoring a PDCCH that schedules a PDSCH carrying system information block 1 (SIB1) and is transmitted by the gNB to the UE on a PBCH in an SS/PBCH block.

The UE may confirm whether a control resource set (CORESET) for a Type0-PDCCH common search space is present based on the MIB. The Type0-PDCCH common search space is a type of PDCCH and is used to transmit the PDCCH that schedules an SI message.

When the Type0-PDCCH common search space is present, the UE may determine (i) a plurality of contiguous RBs and one or more consecutive symbols constituting the CORESET and (ii) a PDCCH occasion (e.g., a time-domain position for PDCCH reception), based on information in the MIB (e.g., pdcch-ConfigSIB1).

When the Type0-PDCCH common search space is not present, pdcch-ConfigSIB1 provides information about a frequency position at which the SSB/SIB1 is present and a frequency range in which the SSB/SIB1 is not present.

SIB1 includes information regarding the availability and scheduling (e.g. a transmission periodicity and/or SI-window size) of remaining SIBs (hereinafter, SIBx where x is an integer equal to or greater than 2). For example, SIB1 may indicate whether SIBx is periodically broadcast or is provided on an on-demand basis (or at the request of the UE). If SIBx is provided on-demand, then SIB1 includes information required for the UE to perform an SI request. SIB1 is transmitted on a PDSCH. The PDCCH that schedules SIB1 is transmitted through the Type0-PDCCH common search space. SIB1 is transmitted on a PDSCH indicated by the PDCCH.

1.5. Synchronization Raster

Synchronization raster refers to a frequency position of an SSB that may be used by the UE to acquire SI when there is no explicit signaling for the position of the SSB. Global synchronization raster is defined for all frequencies. The frequency position of the SSB is defined as SSREF and a corresponding GSCN. Parameters for defining SSREF and the GSCN for all frequency ranges are as follows.

TABLE 4 Frequency range SS Block frequency position SS_(REF) GSCN Range of GSCN 0-3000 MHz N * 1200 kHz + M * 50 kHz, 3N + (M − 3)/2  2-7498 N = 1:2499. M ε (1, 3, 5) (Note 1) 3000-24250 MHz 3000 MHz + N * 1.44 MHz 7499 + N 7499-22255 N = 0:14756 Note 1: The default value for operating bands with SCS spaced channel raster is M = 3.

Mapping between synchronization raster and an RB of a corresponding SSB may be based on the following table. Such mapping may depend on the total number of RBs allocated in a channel and may be applied to both UL and DL.

TABLE 5 Resource element index k 0 Physical resource block number n_(PRB) of the SS block n_(PRB) = 10

1.6. DCI Format

In the NR system to which the present disclosure is applicable, the following DCI formats may be supported. First, the NR system may support DCI format 0_0 and DCI format 0_1 as a DCI format for PUSCH scheduling and support DCI format 1_0 and DCI format 1_1 as a DCI format for PDSCH scheduling. In addition, as DCI formats usable for other purposes, the NR system may additionally support DCI format 2_0, DCI format 2_1, DCI format 2_2, and DCI format 2_3.

Herein, DCI format 0_0 is used to schedule a transmission block (TB)-based (or TB-level) PUSCH. DCI format 0_1 may be used to schedule a TB-based (or TB-level) PUSCH or code block group (CBG)-based (or CBG-level) PUSCH (in the case in which CBG-based signal transmission and reception is configured).

In addition, DCI format 1_0 may be used to schedule TB-based (or TB-level) PDSCH. DCI format 1_1 may be used to schedule TB-based (or TB-level) PDSCH or CBG-based (or CBG-level) PDSCH (in the case in which CBG-based signal transmission and reception is configured).

In addition, DCI format 2_0 may be used to notify UEs of a slot format. DCI format 2_1 may be used to notify UEs of PRB(s) and OFDM symbol(s) in which a specific UE assumes that no transmission is intended therefor. DCI format 2_2 may be used to transmit transmission power control (TPC) commands for a PUCCH and a PUSCH. DCI format 2_3 may be used to transmit a group of TPC commands for SRS transmission by one or more UEs.

More specifically, DCI format 1_1 may include modulation and coding scheme (MCS)/new data indicator (NDI)/redundancy version (RV) fields for TB 1 and further include MCS/NDI/RV fields for TB 2 only when a higher-layer parameter maxNrofCodeWordsScheduledByDCI in a higher-layer parameter PDSCH-Config is set to n2 (i.e., 2).

In particular, when the higher-layer parameter maxNrofCodeWordsScheduledByDCI is set to n2 (i.e., 2), whether a TB is substantially enabled/disabled may be determined by a combination of the MCS field and the RV field. More specifically, when the MCS field for a specific TB has a value of 26 and the RV field for the specific TB has a value of 1, the specific TB may be disabled.

Detailed features of the DCI formats may be supported by 3GPP TS 38.212. That is, obvious steps or parts which are not explained by DCI format-related features may be explained with reference to the above document. In addition, all terms disclosed in the present document may be explained by the above standard document.

1.7. Control Resource Set (CORESET)

One CORESET includes N^(CORESET) _(RB) RBs in the frequency domain and N^(CORESET) _(symb) symbols (having a value of 1, 2, or 3) in the time domain.

One control channel element (CCE) includes 6 resource element groups (REGs) and one REG is equal to one RB in one OFDM symbol. REGs in the CORESET are numbered in a time-first manner. Specifically, the REGs are numbered starting with ‘0’ for the first OFDM symbol and the lowest-numbered RB in the CORESET.

A plurality of CORESETs may be configured for one UE. Each CORESET is related only to one CCE-to-REG mapping.

CCE-to-REG mapping for one CORESET may be interleaved or non-interleaved.

Configuration information for the CORESET may be configured by a higher-layer parameter ControlResourceSet IE.

In the present disclosure, the higher-layer parameter ControlResourceSet IE may be configured as described in the following table.

TABLE 7 ControlResourceSet information element

ControlResourceSet ::= SEQUENCE { controlResourceSetId ControlResourceSetId, frequencyDomainResources BIT STRING (SIZE (45 

), duration INTEGER (1..maxCoReSetDuration), cce-REG-MappingType CHOICE { interleaved SEQUENCE { reg-BundleSize ENUMERATED (n2, n3, n6), interleaverSize ENUMERATED (n2, n3, n6), shiftIndex INTEGER(0..maxNrofPhysicalResourceBlocks−1) OPTICAL

  }, nonInterleaved NULL }, precoderGranularity ENUMERATED {sameAsREG-bundle, all ContiguousRBs}, tci-StatePDCCH-ToAddList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..maxNrofTCI-StatesPDCCH)) OF TCI-StateId OPTIONAL, 

tci-StatesPDCCH-ToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..maxNrofTCI-StatePDCCH)) OF TCI-StateId OPTIONAL, 

tci-PresentInDCI ENUMERATED {enabled} OPTIONAL, 

pdcch-DMRS-ScramblingID INTEGER(0..6 

535) OPTIONAL, 

... }

 TAG 

 

 STOP

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

The parameters defined in the above table may be identical to those defined in 3GPP TS 38.331.

In addition, configuration information for CORESET 0 (e.g., common CORESET) may be configured by a higher-layer parameter ControlResourceSetZero IE.

1.8. Antenna Port Quasi-Colocation

One UE may be configured with a list of up to M transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configurations. The M TCI-state configurations may be configured by a higher-layer parameter PDSCH-Config to decode a PDSCH (by the UE) according to a detected PDCCH with DCI intended for the UE and the given serving cell. Herein, M may be determined depending on the capability of the UE.

Each TCI state contains parameters for configuring a quasi-colocation (QCL) relationship between one or two DL reference signals and the DMRS ports of the PDSCH. The QCL relationship is configured by the higher-layer parameter qcl-Type1 for a first DL RS and a higher-layer parameter qcl-Type2 for a second DL RS (if configured). For the case of two DL RSs, the QCL types should not be the same, regardless of whether the RSs are the same DL RS or different DL RSs. The QCL type corresponding to each DL RS is given by a higher-layer parameter qcl-Type within a higher-layer parameter QCL-Info and may have one of the following values.

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay,         delay spread}     -   ‘QCL-TypeB’: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}     -   ‘QCL-TypeC’: {Doppler shift, average delay}     -   ‘QCL-TypeD’: {Spatial Rx parameter}

The UE receives an activation command used to map up to 8 TCI states to codepoints of a TCI field in the DCI. When a HARQ-ACK signal corresponding to the PDSCH carrying the activation command is transmitted in slot #n, mapping between the TCI states and codepoints of the TCI field in the DCI may be applied starting from slot #(n+3*N^(subframe,μ) _(slot)+1). In this case, N^(subframe,μ) _(slot) is determined based on Table 1 or Table 2 described above. After the UE receives initial higher layer configuration of TCI states and before the UE receives the activation command, the UE assumes that DMRS port(s) of a PDSCH of a serving cell are quasi-colocated (QCLed) with an SS/PBCH block determined in the initial access procedure with respect to ‘QCL-TypeA’. Additionally, the UE may assume that the DMRS port(s) of the PDSCH of the serving cell are QCLed with the SS/PBCH block determined in the initial access procedure also with respect to ‘QCL-TypeD’ at the above timing.

If a higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is set to ‘enabled’ for a CORESET scheduling the PDSCH, the UE assumes that the TCI field is present in a PDCCH of DCI format 1_1 transmitted on the CORESET. If the higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is not configured for the CORESET scheduling the PDSCH or the PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 1_0 and if a time offset between reception of the DL DCI and reception of the corresponding PDSCH is equal to or greater than a threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset (where the threshold is based on UE capability), for determining PDSCH antenna port QCL, the UE assumes that a TCI state or QCL assumption for the PDSCH is identical to a TCI state or QCL assumption applied to a CORESET used for PDCCH transmission.

If the higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is set to ‘enabled’, the TCI field in the DCI scheduling a component carrier (CC) points to activated TCI states in the scheduled CC or a DL BW, and the PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 1_1, the UE uses a TCI-state according to the TCI field in the DCI in a detected PDCCH to determine PDSCH antenna port QCL. The UE may assume that DMRS ports of the PDSCH of a serving cell are QCLed with RS(s) in the TCI state with respect to QCL type parameter(s) given by an indicated TCI state if the time offset between reception of the DL DCI and reception of the corresponding PDSCH is equal to or greater than the threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset (where the threshold is determined based on reported UE capability). When the UE is configured with a single slot PDSCH, the indicated TCI state should be based on the activated TCI states in a slot with the scheduled PDSCH. When the UE is configured with CORESET associated with a search space set for cross-carrier scheduling, the UE expects that the higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDci is set to ‘enabled’ for the CORESET. If one or more of the TCI states configured for the serving cell scheduled by the search space set contains ‘QCL-TypeD’, the UE expects that the time offset between reception of the detected PDCCH in the search space set and reception of the corresponding PDSCH is greater than or equal to the threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset.

For both the case in which a higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is set to ‘enabled’ and the case in which the higher-layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is not configured in RRC connected mode, if the offset between reception of the DL DCI and reception of the corresponding PDSCH is less than the threshold Threshold-Sched-Offset, the UE makes the following assumptions. (i) DMRS ports of a PDSCH of a serving cell are QCLed with the RS(s) in a TCI state with respect to QCL parameter(s). (ii) In this case, the QCL parameter(s) are used for PDCCH QCL indication of the CORESET associated with a monitored search space with the lowest CORESET-ID in the latest slot in which one or more CORESETs within an active BWP of the serving cell are monitored by the UE.

In this case, if the ‘QCL-TypeD’ of a PDSCH DMRS is different from ‘QCL-TypeD’ of a PDCCH DMRS with which overlapping occurs in at least one symbol, the UE is expected to prioritize reception of the ePDCCH associated with the corresponding CORESET. This operation may also be applied to an intra-band carrier aggregation case (when the PDSCH and the CORESET are in different CCs). If none of configured TCI states contains ‘QCL-TypeD’, the UE obtains the other QCL assumptions from the indicated TCI states for a scheduled PDSCH irrespective of the time offset between reception of the DL DCI and reception of the corresponding PDSCH.

For a periodic CSI-RS resource in an NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with a higher-layer parameter trs-Info, the UE should assume that that a TCI state indicates one of the following QCL type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when (QCL-TypeD) is         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same SS/PBCH block, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when (QCL-TypeD) is         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a periodic CSI-RS resource in a         higher-layer parameter NZPCSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with a         higher-layer parameter repetition.

For a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer parameter trs-Info and without the higher-layer parameter repetition, the UE should assume that a TCI state indicates one of the following QCL type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with a higher-layer parameter         trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with         the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with a higher-layer parameter         trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with         an SS/PBCH, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (QCL-TyepD) is applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a periodic CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer         parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the         higher-layer parameter repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeB’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info when ‘QCL-TypeD’ is not applicable.

For a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer parameter repetition, the UE should assume that a TCI state indicates one of the following QCL type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (′QCL-TypeD) is applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (‘QCL-TypeD’ is) applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with higher-layer parameter         repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeC’ with an SS/PBCH block and, when (QCL-TypeD) is         applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same SS/PBCH block.

For the DMRS of PDCCH, the UE should assume that a TCI state indicates one of the following QCL type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with a higher-layer parameter         trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a         CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter repetition, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured without the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and without the higher-layer parameter         repetition and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with         the same CSI-RS resource.

For the DMRS of the PDSCH, the UE should assume that a TCI state indicates one of the following QCL type(s):

-   -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with the same CSI-RS resource, or     -   ‘QCL-TypeA’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable,         ‘QCL-TypeD’ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured with the higher-layer         parameter repetition, or     -   QCL-TypeA′ with a CSI-RS resource in the higher-layer parameter         NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet configured without the higher-layer         parameter trs-Info and without the higher-layer parameter         repetition and, when (QCL-TypeD) is applicable, ‘QCL-TypeD’ with         the same CSI-RS resource.

In the present disclosure, QCL signaling may include all signaling configurations described in the following table.

TABLE 8 QCL linkage for FR2 after RRC signalling SSB → TRS w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, spatial RX parameters QCL type: C + D TRS → CSI-RS for BM w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, delay spread, QCL type: A + D Doppler spread estimation TRS → CSI-RS for CSI w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, delay spread, QCL type: A Doppler spread estimation TRS → DMRS for PDCCH w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, delay QCL type: A + D spread, Doppler spread estimation TRS → DMRS for PDSCH w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, delay QCL type: A + D spread, Doppler spread estimation SSB → CSI-RS for BM w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, spatial RX QCL type: C + D parameters SSB → CSI-RS for CSI w.r.t., spatial RX parameters QCL type: D SSB → DMRS for PDCCH (before TRS is configured) w.r.t. average delay, QCL type: A + D Doppler shift, delay spread, Doppler spread, spatial RX parameters SSB → DMRS for PDSCH (before TRS is configured) w.r.t. average delay, QCL type: A + D Doppler shift, delay spread, Doppler spread, spatial RX parameters CSI-RS for BM → DMRS for PDCCH w.r.t., spatial RX parameters QCL type: D CSI-RS for BM → DMRS for PSDCH w.r.t., spatial RX parameters QCL type: D CSI-RS for CSI → DMRS for PDSCH w.r.t. average delay, Doppler shift, QCL type: A + D delay spread, Doppler spread, spatial RX parameters; Note: QCL parameters may not be dervived directly from CSI-RS for CSI CSI-RS for BM → CSI-RS for TRS/BM/CSI w.r.t. spatial RX parameters QCL type: D

In the following table, it may be assumed that in the presence of rows including the same RS type, the same RS ID is applied.

For example, when there is a CSI-RS resource configured by the higher-layer parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet together with the higher-layer parameter trs-Info, the UE may expect only the two following available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State below.

TABLE 9 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1* SS/PBCH QCL-TypeC SS/PBCH Block QCL-TypeD 2* SS/PBCH QCL-TypeC CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD

In the above table, * may mean that when QCL type-D is applicable, DL RS 2 and QCL type-2 may be configured for the UE.

In another example, when there is a CSI-RS resource configured by the higher-layer parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet without the higher-layer parameter trs-Info and the higher-layer parameter repetition, the UE may expect the following three available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State.

TABLE 10 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1** TRS QCL-TypeA TRS QCL-TypeD 2** TRS QCL-TypeA SS/PBCH Block QCL-TypeD 3** TRS QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD 4*  TRS QCL-TypeB

In the above Table, * may mean that QCL type-D is not applicable.

In the table, ** may mean that when QCL type-D is applicable, DL RS 2 and QCL type-2 may be configured for the UE.

In another example, when there is a CSI-RS resource configured by the higher-layer parameter NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet along with the higher-layer parameter repetition, the UE may expect the following three available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State.

TABLE 11 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1 TRS QCL-TypeA TRS QCL-TypeD 2 TRS QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD 3 SS/PBCH Block QCL-TypeC SS/PBCH Block QCL-TypeD

In the following two tables, when QCL type-D is applicable, DL RS 2 and QCL type-2 may be configured for the UE, except for the default case (the fourth rows in the following two tables). When a DL TRS is used for QCL type-D, the TRS may have an RS for beam management (BM) (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) as a source RS for QCL type-D.

For the DMRS of the PDCCH, the UE may expect the following three available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State while the fourth configuration (the fourth rows of the following two tables) is valid by default before the TRS is configured.

TABLE 12 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1 TRS QCL-TypeA TRS QCL-TypeD 2 TRS QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD  3** CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeD  4* SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeA SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeD

In the above table, * may mean a configuration applicable before the TRS is configured. Accordingly, the corresponding configuration is not a TCI state. Rather, the configuration may be interpreted as a valid QCL assumption.

In the above table, ** may mean that QCL parameters are not directly derived from the CSI-RS (or CSI).

For the DMRS of the PDCCH, the UE may expect the following three available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State while the fourth configuration (the fourth rows of the following two tables) is valid by default before the TRS is configured.

TABLE 13 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1 TRS QCL-TypeA TRS QCL-TypeD 2 TRS QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD  3** CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeD  4* SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeA SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeD

In the above table, * may mean a configuration applicable before the TRS is configured. Accordingly, the corresponding configuration is not a TCI state. Rather, the configuration may be interpreted as a valid QCL assumption.

In the above table, ** may mean that QCL parameters are not directly derived from the CSI-RS (or CSI).

For the DMRS of the PDCCH, the UE may expect the following three available configurations of the higher-layer parameter TCI-State while the fourth configuration (the fourth rows of the following two tables) is valid by default before the TRS is configured.

TABLE 14 Valid TCI state DL RS 2 qcl-Type 2 Configuration DL RS 1 qcl-Type 1 (if configured) (if configured) 1 TRS QCL-TypeA TRS QCL-TypeD 2 TRS QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (BM) QCL-TypeD  3** CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeA CSI-RS (CSI) QCL-TypeD  4* SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeA SS/PBCH Block* QCL-TypeD

In the above table, * may mean a configuration applicable before the TRS is configured. Accordingly, the corresponding configuration is not a TCI state. Rather, the configuration may be interpreted as a valid QCL assumption.

In the above table, ** may mean that QCL parameters are not directly derived from the CSI-RS (or CSI).

In the present disclosure, the BS may configure a TCI state for a CORESET for the UE by the following MAC-CE. The UE may determine an Rx beam by which to receive the CORESET based on the TCI state.

TABLE 15

For example, the BS may provide the UE with TCI state indication information in a UE-specific PDCCH MAC-CE configured as illustrated in the above table. The TCI State indication may be identified by a MAC PDU subheader with a logical channel ID (LCD). The TCI state indication has a fixed size of 16 bits with the following fields.

-   -   Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of a serving         cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of the field is 5         bits.     -   CORESET ID: This field indicates a CORESET identified by the         higher-layer parameter ControlResourceSetId for which the TCI         State is indicated. In the case where the value of the field is         0, the field may indicate a CORESET configured by the         higher-layer parameter controlResourceSetZero. The length of the         field is 4 bits.     -   TCI State ID: This field indicates a TCI state identified by the         higher-layer parameter TCI-StateId applicable to the CORESET         identified by the CORESET ID field. If the field of CORESET ID         is set to 0, this field indicates TCI-StateId for a TCI state of         the first 64 TCI-states configured by tci-States-ToAddModList         and tciStates-ToReleaseList in PDSCH-Config in an active BWP. If         the field of CORESET ID is set to a value other than 0, this         field indicates TCI-StateId configured by         tci-StatesPDCCH-ToAddList and tciStatesPDCCH-ToReleaseList in         controlResourceSet identified by the indicated CORESET ID. The         length of the field is 7 bits.

1.9. CSI-RS Channel State Information Reference Signal

A mobile communication system according to the present disclosure uses a method of increasing data transmission/reception efficiency by adopting multiple transmission antennas and multiple reception antennas for packet transmission. When data is transmitted/received through multiple input/output antennas, channel states between the transmission antennas and the reception antennas should be detected to accurately receive the signal. Therefore, each transmission antenna may have an individual RS. An RS for CSI feedback may be defined as a CSI-RS.

The CSI-RS includes zero power (ZP) CSI-RS and non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS. The ZP CSI-RS and the NZP CSI-RS may be defined as follows.

-   -   The NZP CSI-RS may be configured by an NZP-CSI-RS-Resource         information element (IE) or a CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility field in         a CSI-RS-ResourceConfigMobility IE. The NZP CSI-RS may be         defined based on the sequence generation and resource mapping         method defined in 3GPP TS 38.211.     -   The ZP CSI-RS may be configured by a ZP-CSI-RS-Resource IE. The         UE may assume that resources configured for the ZP CSI-RS are         not used for PDSCH transmission. The UE performs the same         measurement/reception on channels/signals except PDSCHs         regardless of whether they collide with the ZP CSI-RS or not

Positions at which the CSI-RS is mapped in a slot may be dynamically determined by the number of CSI-RS ports, a CSI-RS density, a code division multiplexing (CDM) type, and a higher-layer parameter (e.g., firstOFDMSymbolInTimeDomain, firstOFDMSymbolInTimeDomain2, and so on).

1.10. Search Space

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a higher-layer parameter SearchSpace IE applicable to the present disclosure.

The BS may configure one or more search spaces associated with a CORSET for the UE by transmitting the SearchSpace IE as described in FIG. 8 to the UE by RRC signaling. Based on controlResourceSetID defined in the SearchSpace IE, one search space may be associated with one CORESET.

The SearchSpace IE defines how/where the UE is to search for PDCCH candidate(s). Each search space is associated with one ControlResourceSet. In cross-carrier scheduling, all optional fields except for nrofCandidates may be omitted (or absent) for a scheduled cell.

Each field of the SearchSpace IE may be defined as described in the following tables.

TABLE 16 common 

Configures 

control 

The CORESET 

1. 

dummy1, dummy2 

This field is not used 

dci-Format0 

If configured, the UE 

dci-Format2-0 

If configured, UE 

dci-Format2-1 

If configured, UE 

dci-Format3-2 

If configured, UE 

dci-Format2-3 

If configured, UE 

dci-Formats 

Indicates whether the UE monitors in this USS for DCI 

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 17 duration 

Number of 

value 1 slot, 

monitoringSlot 

Slots for PDCCH 

configured 

monitoringSymbols 

The first 

represents the first 

OFDM 

For DCI format 

two symbols apply if the duration of 

by 

nonCandidates-SFI The number of PDCCH candidates specifically for format 2.0 

with that 

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

TABLE 18

Number of PDCCH 

specified or a format 

number of candidates and aggregation 

searchSpaceId Identity of the search 

scheduled cell and 

configured in scheduling cell and scheduled 

searchSpaceTypes Indicates whether this is a common search space (present) or UE specific search space as well as DCI formats to monitor for: Configures this search space as UE specific search space (UBS). The UE monitors the CGI format with CRC 

(if configured)

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

Further, the conditional phrases in the SearchSpace IE may be interpreted as follows.

TABLE 19 Condition Presence Explanation Setup This field is mandatory present upon creation of a new SearchSpace. It is optionally present. Need M. otherwise. SetupOnly This field is mandatory present upon creation of a new SearchSpace. It is absent. Need M. otherwise.

In the present disclosure, the UE may use a hashing function to calculate a control channel element (CCE) index in a search space set. The hashing function may be configured based on the following table. In other words, the UE may calculate a CCE index from a search space set based on the following hashing function.

TABLE 20 Hashing function For a search space set s associated with control resource set p, the CCE indexes for aggregation level L corresponding to PDCCH candidate m_(s,n) _(CI) of the search space set in slot n_(s,f) ^(μ) for a serving cell corresponding to carrier indicator field value n_(CI) are given by       ${L \cdot \left\{ {\left( {{Y\text{?}} + \left\lfloor \frac{m\text{?}N_{{CCE},\text{?}}}{{L \cdot M}\text{?}} \right\rfloor + n_{CI}} \right){mod}\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{CCE},\text{?}}}{L} \right\rfloor} \right\}} + \text{?}$ where For any common search space, Y_(p,u) _(s,f) _(μ) = 0 For a UE-specific search space, Y_(p,u) _(s,f) _(μ) = (A_(p) · Y_(p,u) _(s,f) _(μ) _(−i))modD, Y_(p,−1) = n_(RNTI) ≠ 0, A₀ = 39827 for pmod3 = 0, A₁ = 32829 for pmod3 = 1, A₂ = 39839 for pmod3 = 2, and D = 65537; i = 0, . . . , L − 1; m_(s,n) _(CI) = 0, . . , M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L)) − 1, where M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L)) is the number of PDCCH candidates the UE is configured to monitor for aggregation level L for a serving cell corresponding to n_(CI) and a search space set s; For any common search space, M_(p,s,max) ^((L)) = M_(p,s,0) ^((L)) For a UE-specific search space, M_(p,s,max) ^((L)) is the maximum of M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L)) over all configured n_(CI) values for a CCE aggregation level L of search space set s in control resource set p; ?indicates text missing or illegible when filed

1.11. Configuration Parameter for CSI Reporting (e.g., CSI-ReportConfig IE)

For CSI reporting applicable to the present disclosure, a configuration parameter for CSI reporting (e.g., CSI-ReportConfig) may be configured for the UE.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the higher-layer parameter CSI-ReportConfig IE applicable to the present disclosure.

resourceForChannelMeasurement, si-IM-ResourceForInterference, and nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceForInterference in the CSI-ReportConfig IE may be placed in the following relationship.

For aperiodic CSL each trigger state configured using the higher layer parameter CSI-AperiodicTriggerState is associated with one or multiple CSI-ReportConfig where each CSI-ReportConfig is linked to periodic, or semi-persistent, or aperiodic resource setting(s):

-   -   When one Resource Setting is configured, the Resource Setting         (given by higher layer parameter resourcesForChannelMeasurement)         is for channel measurement for L1-RSRP computation.     -   When two Resource Settings are configured, the first one         Resource Setting (given by higher layer parameter         resourcesForChannelMeasurement) is for channel measurement and         the second one (given by either higher layer parameter         csi-IM-ResourcesForInterference or higher layer parameter         nzp-CSI-RS-ResourcesForInterference) is for interference         measurement performed on CSI-IM or on NZP CSI-RS.     -   When three Resource Settings are configured, the first Resource         Setting (higher layer parameter resourcesForChannelMeasurement)         is for channel measurement, the second one (given by higher         layer parameter csi-IM-ResourcesForInterference) is for CSI-IM         based interference measurement and the third one (given by         higher layer parameter nzp-CSI-RS-ResourcesForInterference) is         for NZP CSI-RS based interference measurement.

For semi-persistent or periodic CSI, each CSI-ReportConfig is linked to periodic or semi-persistent Resource Setting(s):

-   -   When one Resource Setting (given by higher layer parameter         resourcesForChannelMeasurement) is configured, the Resource         Setting is for channel measurement for L1-RSRP computation.     -   When two Resource Settings are configured, the first Resource         Setting (given by higher layer parameter         resourcesForChannelMeasurement) is for channel measurement and         the second Resource Setting (given by higher layer parameter         csi-IM-ResourcesForInterference) is used for interference         measurement performed on CSI-IM.

A UE is not expected to be configured with more than one CSI-RS resource in resource set for channel measurement for a CSI-ReportConfig with the higher layer parameter codebookType set to ‘typeII’ or to ‘typeII-PortSelection’. A UE is not expected to be configured with more than 64 NZP CSI-RS resources in resource setting for channel measurement for a CSI-ReportConfig with the higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to ‘none’, ‘cri-RI-CQI’, ‘cri-RSRP’ or ‘ssb-Index-RSRP’. If interference measurement is performed on CSI-IM, each CSI-RS resource for channel measurement is resource-wise associated with a CSI-IM resource by the ordering of the CSI-RS resource and CSI-IM resource in the corresponding resource sets. The number of CSI-RS resources for channel measurement equals to the number of CSI-IM resources.

If interference measurement is performed on NZP CSI-RS, a UE does not expect to be configured with more than one NZP CSI-RS resource in the associated resource set within the resource setting for channel measurement. The UE configured with the higher layer parameter nzp-CSI-RS-ResourcesForInterference may expect no more than 18 NZP CSI-RS ports configured in a NZP CSI-RS resource set.

For CSI measurement(s), a UE assumes:

-   -   each NZP CSI-RS port configured for interference measurement         corresponds to an interference transmission layer,     -   all interference transmission layers on NZP CSI-RS ports for         interference measurement take into account the associated EPRE         ratios configured in 5.2.2.3.1;     -   other interference signal on REs of NZP CSI-RS resource for         channel measurement, NZP CSI-RS resource tor interference         measurement, or CSI-IM resource for interference measurement.

Based on the above relationship, CSI may be calculated in the following manner.

If the UE is configured with a CSI-ReportConfig with the higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to ‘cri-RSRP’, ‘cri-RI-PMI-CQI’, ‘cri-RI-i1’, ‘cri-RI-I1-CQI’, ‘cri-RI-CQI’ or ‘cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI’, and K_(s)>1 resources are configured in the corresponding resource set tor channel measurement, then the UE shall derive the CSI parameters other than CRI conditioned on the reported CRI, where CRI k (k≥0) corresponds to the configured (k+1)-th entry of associated nzp-CSI-RSResource in the corresponding nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceSet for channel measurement, and (k+1)-th entry of associated csi-IM-Resource in the corresponding csi-IM-ResourceSet (if configured) If K₂=2 CSI-RS resources are configured, each resource shall contain at most 16 CSI-RS ports. If 2<K_(s)≤8 CSI-RS resources are configured, each resource shall contain at most 8 CSI-RS ports.

Depending on whether the groupBasedBeamReporting parameter in the CSI-ReportConfig IE is ‘enabled’ or ‘disabled’, reporting for reportQuantity={cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP} may be performed as follows.

If the UE is configured with a CSI-ReportConfig with the higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to a ‘cri-RSRP’ or ‘ssb-Index-RSRP’,

-   -   it the UE is configured with the higher layer parameter         groupBasedBeamReporting set to ‘disabled’, the UE is not         required to update measurements for more than 64 CSI-RS and or         SSB resource, and the UE shall report in a single report         nrofReportedRS (higher layer configured) different CRI or SSBRI         for each report setting.     -   if the UE is configured with the higher layer parameter         groupBasedBeamReporting set to ‘enabled’, the UE is not required         to update measurements for more than 64 CSI-RS and/or SSB         resources, and the UE shall report in a single reporting         instance two different CRI or SSBRI for each report setting,         where CSI-RS and/or SSB resources can be received simultaneously         by the UE either with a single spatial domain receive filter, or         with multiple simultaneous spatial domain receive filters.

If the UE is configured with a CSI-ReportConfig with higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to ‘cri-RSRP’ or ‘none’ and the CSI-ReportConfig is linked to a resource setting configured with the higher layer parameter resourceType set to ‘aperiodic’, then the UE is not expected to be configured with more than 16 CSI-RS resources in a CSI-RS resource set contained within the resource setting.

For L1-RSRP computation, the UE may be configured as follows. According to nrofReportedRS or groupBasedBeamReporting, the UE may perform reporting as follows.

For L1-RSRP computation

-   -   the UE may be configured with CSI-RS resources, SS/PBCH Block         resources or both CSI-RS and SS/PBCH block resources, when         resource-wise quasi co-located with ‘QCL-Type C’ and ‘QCL-TypeD’         when applicable.     -   the UE may be configured with CSI-RS resource setting up to 16         CSI-RS resource sets having up to 64 resources within each set.         The total number of different CSI-RS resources over all resource         sets is no more than 128.

For L1-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS in CSI-ReportConfig is configured to be one, the reported L1-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [−140, −44] dBm with 1 db step size, if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS is configured to be larger than one, or if the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting is configured as ‘enabled’, the UE shall use differential L1-RSRP based reporting, where the largest measured value of L1-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [−140, −44] dBm with 1 dB step size, and the differential L1-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential L1-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured L1-RSRP value which is part of the same L1-RSRP reporting instance. The mapping between the reported L1-RSRP value and the measured quantity is described in [II, TS 38.133].

Additionally, for reporting a channel quality indicator (CQI) as CSI according to the present disclosure, the UE may refer to the following tables defined in 3GPP TS 38.214 5.2.2.1 More specifically, the UE may report CQI information (e.g., index) closest to a measured CQI to the BS based on the following tables.

TABLE 21 CQI index modulation code rate × 1024 efficiency  0 out of range  1 QPSK  78 0.1523  2 QPSK 120 0.2344  3 QPSK 193 0.3770  4 QPSK 308 06016  6 QPSK 449 0.8770  6 QPSK 602 1.1758  7 16QAM 378 1.4766  8 16QAM 490 1.9141  9 16QAM 616 2.4068 10 64QAM 466 2.7306 11 64QAM 567 3.3223 12 64QAM 666 3.9023 13 64QAM 772 4.5234 14 64QAM 873 5.1152 15 64QAM 948 5.5547

TABLE 22 CQI index modulation code rate × 1024 efficiency  0 out of range  1 QPSK  78 0.1523  2 QPSK 193 0.3770  3 QPSK 449 0.8770  4  16QAM 378 1.4766  6  16QAM 490 1.9141  6  16QAM 616 2.4063  7  64QAM 466 2.7305  8  64QAM 567 3.3223  9  64QAM 666 3.9023 10  64QAM 772 4.5234 11  64QAM 873 5.1152 12 256QAM 711 5.5547 13 256QAM 797 6.2266 14 256QAM 885 6.9141 15 256QAM 948 7.4063

TABLE 23 CQI index modulation code rate × 1024 efficiency  0 out of range  1 QPSK  30 0.0589  2 QPSK  50 0.0977  3 QPSK  78 0.1523  4 QPSK 120 0.2344  6 QPSK 193 0.3770  6 QPSK 308 0.6016  7 QPSK 449 0.8770  8 QPSK 602 1.1758  9 16QAM 378 1.4766 10 16QAM 490 1.9141 11 16QAM 616 2.4063 12 64QAM 466 2.7305 13 64QAM 567 3.3223 14 64QAM 666 3.9023 15 64QAM 772 4.5234

1.12 Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) Reporting

For RSRP reporting, the UE may refer to the following table. More specifically, the UE may report RSRP information (e.g., index) closest to a measured RSRP to the BS.

TABLE 24 BRSRP index Measured quantity value [dBm]  0 BRSRP < −140  1 −140 ≤ BRSRP −139  2 −139 ≤ BRSRP < −138 ... ... 95 −46 ≤BRSRP < −45 96 −45 ≤ BRSRP < −44 97 −44 ≤ BRSRP

1.13. Beam Management

The gNB may make a request to the UE for periodic CSI/beam reporting, semi-persistent CSI/beam reporting (e.g., periodic CSI reporting is activated for only a specific time duration or the UE continuously performs CSI reporting a plurality of times), or aperiodic CSI/beam reporting.

In this case, CSI reporting information may include at least one of the following information.

-   -   RI (rank indicator) representing information as to how many         layer/streams the UE desires to simultaneously receive.     -   PMI (precoder matrix indication) representing information as to         which multiple input multiple output (MIMO) precoding the gNB         desires to apply in terms of the UE.     -   CQI (channel quality information) representing channel quality         information considering strength of a signal desired by the UE         and strength of an interference signal.     -   CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator) representing a CSI-RS resource         index preferred by the UE among a plurality of CSI-RS resources         (to which different beamforming is applied).     -   LI (layer indicator) representing an index of a layer having         best quality in terms of the UE.

In addition, beam reporting information may be configured by a specific combination of the CRI indicating a preferred beam index when an RS for beam quality measurement is a CSI-RS, an SSB ID indicating a preferred beam index when the RS for beam quality measurement is an SSB, and reference signal received power (RSRP) indicating beam quality.

For periodic and semi-persistent (SP) CSI/beam reporting of the UE, the gNB may allocate a UL physical channel (e.g., a PUCCH or a PUSCH) for CSI/beam reporting to the UE at a specific period in a time duration during which the reporting has been activated. For CSI measurement of the UE, the gNB may transmit a DL RS to the UE.

In the case of a beamformed system to which (analog) beamforming has been applied, it is necessary to determine a DL transmission (Tx)/reception (Rx) beam pair for DL RS transmission/reception and a UL Tx/Rx beam pair for UCI (e.g., CSI or ACK/NACK) transmission/reception.

A DL beam pair determination process may include a combination of (i) a transmission and reception point (TRP) Tx beam selection procedure of transmitting, by the gNB, DL RSs corresponding to a plurality of TRP Tx beams to the UE and selecting and/or reporting, by the UE, one of the DL RSs, and (ii) a procedure of repeatedly transmitting, by the gNB, the same RS signal corresponding to each TRP Tx beam and measuring, by the UE, the repeatedly transmitted signals using different UE Rx beams and selecting a UE Rx beam.

A UL beam pair determination process may include a combination of (i) a UE Tx beam selection procedure of transmitting, by the UE, UL RSs corresponding to a plurality of UE Tx beams to the gNB and selecting and/or signaling, by the gNB, one of the UL RSs, and (ii) a procedure of repeatedly transmitting, by the UE, the same RS signal corresponding to each UE Tx beam to the base station and measuring, by the gNB, the repeatedly transmitted signals using different TRP Rx beams and selecting a TRP Rx beam.

When beam reciprocity (or beam correspondence) of DL/UL is established (e.g., when it may be assumed that a gNB DL Tx beam and a gNB UL Rx beam are identical and a UE UL Tx beam and a UE DL Rx beam are identical in communication between the gNB and the UE), if one of a DL beam pair and a UL beam pair is determined, a procedure of determining the other of the DL beam pair and the UL beam pair may be omitted.

The DL and/or UL beam pair determination process may be performed periodically or aperiodically. As an example, when there are many candidate beams, required RS overhead may increase. In this case, the DL and/or UL beam pair determination process may be performed at a predetermined period in consideration of RS overhead.

After the DL and/or UL beam pair determination process is completed, the UE may perform periodic or SP CSI reporting. A CSI-RS including a single antenna port or a plurality of antenna ports for CSI measurement of the UE may be beamformed and transmitted using a TRP Tx beam determined as a DL beam. In this case, the transmission period of the CSI-RS may be set to be equal to or shorter than the CSI reporting period of the UE.

Alternatively, the gNB may transmit an aperiodic CSI-RS at a CSI reporting period of the UE or more frequently than the CSI reporting period of the UE.

The UE may transmit measured CSI using the UL Tx beam determined in the periodic UL beam pair determination process.

1.14. Beam Recovery Procedure

In performing a DL/UL beam management process at the UE and the gNB, a beam mismatch problem may occur according to a set beam management period.

In particular, in the case in which a wireless channel environment is changed due to movement of position of the UE, rotation of the UE, or movement of a nearby object (e.g., a line of sight (LoS) environment is changed to a non-LoS environment as a beam is blocked), an optimal DL/UL beam pair may be changed. Such a change may be more generally explained as occurrence of a beam failure event due to failure of tracking of a beam management process performed by a network indication.

The UE may determine whether such a beam failure event has occurred through reception quality of a DL RS.

Next, the UE may transmit a report message for such a situation or a beam recovery request message (hereinafter referred to as a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) message) to the gNB (or network).

The gNB may receive the message and perform beam recovery through various processes such as beam RS transmission and beam reporting request for beam recovery. This series of beam recovery processes is called beam failure recovery (BFR).

According to the standard specification, such as 3GPP TS 38.213 or 3GPP TS 38.321, a BFR procedure may be configured as follows.

(1) Beam Failure Detection (BFD)

When all PDCCH beams fall below a predetermined quality value Q_out, a physical layer of the UE declares that one beam failure instance has occurred.

In this case, the quality of a beam is measured based on a hypothetical block error rate (BLER). In other words, the quality of the beam may be measured based on a probability that the UE fails to demodulate control information if it is assumed that the corresponding information has been transmitted on a corresponding PDCCH.

For implicit configuration for a BFD RS, a plurality of search spaces for monitoring the PDCCH may be configured for a specific UE. Beams (or resources) may be configured to be different for respective search spaces. Therefore, the case in which all PDCCH beams fall below a predetermined quality value may mean the case in which the quality of all the beams falls below a BLER threshold.

For the BFD RS, various configuration methods may be applied/configured.

As an example, an implicit configuration method may be used for the BFD RS. More specifically, each search space may be configured with a CORESET (refer to TS 38.213, TS 38.214, or TS 38.331) ID, which is a resource region in which the PDCCH may be transmitted. The gNB may indicate/configure QCLed RS information (e.g., a CSI-RS resource ID or an SSB ID) in terms of a spatial Rx parameter for each CORESET ID for/to the UE. For example, the gNB may indicate/configure an QCLed RS to/for the UE through an indication of TCI.

Here, indication/configuration of the QCLed RS in terms of the spatial Rx parameter (i.e., QCL type D in TS 28.214) by the gNB to/for the UE may mean that the UE should use (or may use) a beam which has been used for reception of a spatially QCLed RS to receive a corresponding PDCCH DMRS. In other words, indication/configuration of the QCLed RS in terms of the spatial Rx parameter (i.e., QCL type D in TS 28.214) by the gNB to/for the UE may mean that, in terms of the gNB, the gNB notifies the UE that transmission will be performed by applying the same Tx beam or similar Tx beams (e.g., the case in which beam widths are different while beam directions are the same/similar) to spatially QCLed antenna ports.

For explicit configuration of the BFD RS, the gNB may explicitly configure specific RSs (e.g., beam RS(s)) for the purpose of BFD for the UE. In this case, the specific RSs may correspond to the “all PDCCH beams”.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, a plurality of BFD RSs will be defined as a BFD RS set.

When a beam failure instance occurs a predetermined number of times (in succession), a media access control (MAC) layer of the UE may declare that beam failure has occurred.

(2) New Beam Identification and Selection

(2-1) Step 1

The UE may search for a beam having a determined quality value (Q_in) or higher among RSs configured by the gNB as a candidate beam RS set.

-   -   If one beam RS exceeds the determined quality value (threshold),         the UE may select the corresponding beam RS.     -   If a plurality of beam RSs exceeds the threshold, the UE may         select one of the corresponding beam RSs.     -   If there is no beam exceeding the threshold, the UE may perform         Step 2 below.

In the above-described operation, the beam quality may be determined based on an RSRP.

In the present disclosure, the RS beam set configured by the gNB may be configured as one of three cases below.

-   -   All beam RSs in the RS beam set are composed of SSBs.     -   All beam RSs in the RS beam set are composed of CSI-RS         resources.     -   Beam RSs in the RS beam set are composed of SSBs and CSI-RS         resources.

(2-2) Step 2

The UE may search for a beam having the determined threshold Q_in or higher among SSBs (connected to a contention-based PRACH resource).

-   -   If one SSB exceeds the threshold, the UE may select the         corresponding SSB.     -   If a plurality of SSBs exceeds the threshold, the UE may select         one of the SSBs.     -   If there is no SSB exceeding the threshold, the UE may perform         step 3 below.

(2-3) Step 3

The UE may select any SSB among the SSBs (connected to the contention-based PRACH resource).

(3) Contention-Free Random Access (CFRA)-Based BFRQ and Monitoring of Response of gNB

In the present disclosure, a BFRQ may include transmitting, by the UE, a PRACH resource and a PRACH preamble configured to be directly or indirectly connected to the beam RS (CSI-RS or SSB) selected in the above-described process to the gNB. In other words, the BFRQ may include transmitting, by the UE, the PRACH preamble related to the beam RS selected in the above-described process through the PRACH resource related to the beam RS selected by the UE.

In the present disclosure, the PRACH resource and the PRACH preamble configured to be directly connected may be used in the following two cases.

-   -   The case in which a contention-free PRACH resource and PRACH         preamble are configured for a specific RS in a candidate beam RS         set separately configured for BFR.     -   The case in which a (contention-based) PRACH resource and PRACH         preamble mapped respectively to SSBs configured for general         purposes, such as random access, are configured.

Alternatively, the PRACH resource and the PRACH preamble configured to be indirectly connected may be used in the following cases.

-   -   The case in which the contention-free PRACH resource and         preamble are not configured for a specific CSI-RS in a candidate         beam RS set separately configured for BFR.     -   In this case, the UE may select a (contention-free) PRACH         resource and PRACH preamble connected to an SSB designated as         being capable of being received by the same Rx beam as a         corresponding CSI-RS (i.e., QCLed with respect to a spatial Rx         parameter).

For convenience of description, reference signal received quality (RSRQ) based on the contention-free PRACH resource and PRACH is referred to as CFRA-based RSRQ.

The UE may transmit a PRACH preamble to the gNB based on the above-described configuration and monitor a response of the gNB to corresponding PRACH transmission.

Here, a response to the contention-free PRACH resource and PRACH preamble may be transmitted on a PDCCH masked with a cell random access network temporary identifier (C-RNTI). The PDCCH may be received in a search space separately configured (by RRC signaling) for BFR.

The search space may be configured on a specific CORESET (for BFR).

In the present disclosure, a response to a contention-based PRACH for BFR may reuse a CORESET (e.g., CORESET 0 or CORESET 1) and a search space, configured for a random access procedure based on a contention-based PRACH.

If there is no reply for a certain time in the above-described configuration, the UE may repeatedly perform the new beam identification and selection process and the BFRQ and monitoring process of the response of the gNB.

In the present disclosure, the UE may perform the above processes until (i) PRACH transmission reaches a predetermined maximum number (e.g., N_max) or (ii) a separately set timer expires. When the timer expires, the UE may stop contention-free-based PRACH transmission. However, the UE may perform transmission of the contention-based PRACH based on SSB selection until PRACH transmission reaches N_max (regardless of whether the timer expires).

(4) Contention-Based Random Access (CBRA)-Based BFRQ and Monitoring of Response of gNB

In the following cases, the UE may perform a CBRA-based BFRQ.

-   -   The case in which the UE fails to perform a CFRA-based BFRQ. In         this case, the UE may perform the CBRA-based BFRQ as a         subsequent operation.     -   The case in which CFRA is not defined in an active BWP.     -   The case in which a CORESET associated with a higher-layer         parameter SearchSpace-BFR is not configured or the higher-layer         parameter SearchSpace-BFR is not configured.

However, unlike the case of CFRA, the UE may use, for CBRA, a PRACH resource used during UL initial access and then may collide with other UEs.

The above-described beam failure detection and beam recovery procedures may be summarized as follows.

When beam failure is detected on serving SSB(s)/CSI-RS(s), a MAC entity may be configured by RRC signaling with a beam failure recovery procedure which is used to indicate a new SSB or CSI-RS to a serving gNB. Beam failure may be detected by counting a beam failure instance indication from lower layers to the MAC entity. For the beam failure detection and recovery procedure, the gNB may configure the following parameters in a higher-layer parameter BeamFailureRecoveryConfig for the UE by RRC signaling:

-   -   beamFailureInstanceMaxCount (for beam failure detection);     -   beamFailureDetectionTimer (for beam failure detection);     -   beamFailureRecoveryTimer (for the beam failure recovery         procedure);     -   rsrp-ThresholdSSB: an RSRP threshold for beam failure recovery;     -   powerRampingStep: a parameter powerRampingStep for beam failure         recovery;     -   preambleReceivedTargetPower: a parameter         preambleReceivedTargetPower for beam failure recovery;     -   preambleTransMax: parameter preambleTransMax for beam failure         recovery;     -   ra-Response Window: a time window to monitor response(s) for the         beam failure recovery procedure using a contention-free random         access preamble;     -   prach-ConfigIndex: a parameter prach-ConfigIndex for beam         failure recovery;     -   ra-ssb-OccasionMaskIndex: a parameter ra-ssb-OccasionMaskIndex         for beam failure recovery;     -   ra-OccasionList: a parameter ra-OccasionList for beam failure         recovery;

The UE may use the following variable for the beam failure detection procedure:

-   -   BFI_COUNTER: a counter for a beam failure instance indication         which is initially set to 0.

The MAC entity of the UE may operate as follows.

-   -   1> if the beam failure instance indication is received from         lower layers:     -   2> start or restart beamFailureDetectionTimer;     -   2> increment BFI_COUNTER by 1;     -   2> if BFI_COUNTER>=beamFailureInstanceMaxCount:     -   3> if a higher-layer parameter beamFailureRecoveryConfig is         configured:     -   4> start beamFailureRecoveryTimer (if configured);     -   4> initiate a random access procedure on a special cell (SpCell)         (e.g., a PCell in a macro cell group (MCG) or a primary         secondary cell group cell (PSCell) in a secondary cell group         (SCG)) by applying parameters powerRampingStep,         preambleReceivedTargetPower, and preambleTransMax configured in         the higher-layer parameter beamFailureRecoveryConfig;     -   3> or:     -   4> initiate a random access procedure on an SpCell.     -   1> if beamFailureDetectionTimer expires:     -   2> set BFI_COUNTER to 0.     -   1> if the random access procedure is successfully completed:     -   2> stop beamFailureRecoveryTimer (if configured).     -   2> consider the beam failure recovery procedure as being         successfully completed.

Additionally, the PCell, the SCell, and the serving cell may be defined as follows.

[1] Primary Cell (PCell)

A PCell refers to a cell operating on a primary frequency which is used by the UE to perform an initial connection establishment procedure or a connection re-establishment procedure or is indicated as the PCell in a handover procedure.

[2] Secondary Cell (SCell)

An SCell refers to a cell operating on a secondary frequency which is configurable after RRC connection setup or usable to provide an additional radio resource such as an additional carrier for carrier aggregation.

In the present disclosure, contention-based random access (CBRA) may not be configured on the SCell, whereas contention-free random access (CFRA) may be performed to be configured on the SCell.

[3] Serving Cell

For the UE in an RRC_CONNECTED state, for which CA is not configured, only one serving cell including the PCell is present. For the UE in an RRC_CONNECTED state, for which CA is configured, serving cells mean one or more sets including one PCell and all SCell(s).

Additionally, for a BFRQ for a DL only SCell according to the present disclosure, CBRA on the PCell may be used, or (in the presence of SCell UL) CFRA may be additionally used for SCell BFR.

For this purpose, for example, an operation based on a PCell configured in FR1 and an SCell configured in FR2 may be considered as a multi-beam-based operation.

In this case, even though beam failure occurs to the SCell, the link quality of the PCell UL may be assumed to be good. Since the SCell includes only a DL component carrier (CC), a MAC-CE in the PCell may be used as a simple solution for SCell BFR. In this case, the UE may transmit a cell ID, a new beam RS ID, and the like on a PCell PUSCH. For the MAC-CE-based solution, the UE may need to transmit a scheduling request (SR) on a PUCCH. To enable the BS to promptly identify the situation of the UE (e.g., whether the UE requests a PUSCH for general data transmission or for BFR reporting), allocation of dedicated SR resources only for use in a BFRQ to the UE may be considered. This is a UE-initiated transmission, for which an SR PUCCH format may be reused.

In another example, for BFR of an SCell configured for DL only or DL/UL in FR2 in a multi-beam-based operation, the following may be considered.

For the SCell BFR, the link quality of the PCell DL/UL may be assumed to be quite good. When the PCell is in a beam failure state, PCell BFR may precede the SCell BFR through an existing BFR mechanism. For this purpose, a method of using only the PCell UL for a request/information related to SCell beam failure may be considered.

In regard to information transmitted on the PCell UL, the following various options are available.

Option 1: Occurrence of SCell beam failure

Option 2: Occurrence of SCell beam failure and/or information about failed or surviving beam(s).

A comparison between option 1 and option 2 reveals that no additional large effect/gain may be achieved from option 2. This is because the PCell is still alive and thus the BS may trigger regular beam reporting on the PCell based on an existing beam reporting mechanism to obtain information for the SCell.

Accordingly, the UE may report only the occurrence of the SCell beam failure on the PCell UL.

To transmit the information, the following three options may be considered.

Option 1: PRACH in PCell

Option 2: PUCCH in PCell

Option 3: PUSCH in PCell

Alternatively, when SCell beam failure occurs, the UE may report related information in dedicated PUCCH resources of PUCCH format 0/1 on the PCell. In this context, a signal/message/procedure for SCell BFR is yet to be defined separately.

1.15. Random Access Channel (RACH)

Hereinbelow, a random access procedure and an RACH applicable to the present disclosure will be described.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating a random access procedure applicable to the present disclosure.

In steps (A) and (1) in FIG. 10, the UE may receive system information (for initial attachment) or RRC connection reconfiguration information (for LTE interplay) from the gNB.

In step (B) in FIG. 10, the UE may transmit Msg1 (a PRACH preamble) to the gNB.

In this step, if all conditions for PRACH transmission are met, the UE may transmit the PRACH preamble masked (or scrambled) with an RA-RNTI to the gNB.

In steps (2) and (C) in FIG. 10, the UE may receive Msg 2 (e.g., a random access response (RAR) (on a PDCCH/PDSCH). In these steps (i.e., after PRACH transmission), the following procedures may be performed.

-   -   The gNB transmits DCI scrambled with the (above-calculated)         RA-RNTI to the gNB.     -   The UE may attempt to detect the PDCCH (e.g., DCI) masked (or         scrambled) with the corresponding RA-RNTI in the period of an         RAR-window. For example, within ra-ResponseWindow, the UE may         look for the DCI in a search space (e.g., Type 1 PDCCH common         search space).     -   A DCI format for scheduling the RAR PDSCH may use DCI format 1_0         masked (or scrambled) with the RA-RNTI.

In steps (3) and (D) in FIG. 10, the UE may transmit Msg3 (on the PUSCH) to the gNB. In these steps (i.e., immediately before Msg3 is transmitted), the following procedures may be performed.

-   -   The UE should determine whether to apply transform precoding for         the Msg3 PUSCH, based on a higher-layer parameter         msg3-transformPrecoding called msg3-tp.     -   The UE should determine an SCS for the Msg3 PUSCH from a         higher-layer parameter Subcarrier Spacing called msg3-scs.     -   The UE should transmit the Msg3 PUSCH on the same serving call         in which a PRACH has been transmitted

In steps (4) and (E) in FIG. 10, the UE may receive Msg4 (e.g., contention resolution) (on the PDCCH/PDSCH) from the gNB. In these steps (i.e., immediately after Msg3 is transmitted), the following procedures may be performed. For convenience of description, only successful cases will be described below.

-   -   Start ra-ContentionResolutionTimer     -   Perform monitoring to decode the PDCCH masked (or scrambled)         with a temporary C-RNTI (TC-RNTI). In other words, the UE looks         for DCI in a search space (e.g., Type 1 PDCCH common search         space) while ra-ContentionResolutionTimer is running.     -   If the PDCCH is successfully decoded,         -   the UE decodes the PDSCH carrying a MAC control element (CE)         -   set C-RNTI=TC-RNTI     -   Discard ra-ContentionResolutionTimer     -   Consider that this random access procedure successfully         completed

In steps (5) and (F) in FIG. 10, the UE may transmit a HARQ ACK signal for Msg4 to the gNB. Once the UE successfully decodes Msg4 (contention resolution), the UE may transmit HARQ ACK for data (e.g., PDSCH carrying Msg4).

2. Operation Examples of UE and BS (or gNB) proposed in Present Disclosure

Prior to description of the present disclosure, terms used to describe the present disclosure are defined as follows.

-   -   BFR: Beam Failure Recovery     -   BFD: Beam Failure Detection     -   BFRQ: Beam Failure Recovery ReQuest     -   CFRA: Contention Free Random Access     -   CBRA: Contention Based Random Access

In the present disclosure, the term terminal is interchangeably used with UE.

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram illustrating a signal transmission and reception operation between multiple cells and a UE according to an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 11, the UE and the BS may operate according to the beam recovery procedure described before in subclause 1.13. More specifically, in FIG. 11, the UE may receive CORESET #0, CORESET #1, and CORESET #2 (or search space #0, search space #1, and search space #2) from one PCell and two SCells, respectively. When BF occurs to a specific SCell, the UE may report the BF event to the BS. To this end, the BS may separately configure [UE specific] PCell UL resources for the event reporting, for the UE. However, considering a case where the number of UEs having SCells increases or the periodicity of the UL resources may be set to be short, a relatively large number of PCell UL resources may be required.

For example, the UE may report CSI information of each SCell to the BS in PUCCH/PUSCH resources defined in the PCell. For example, CSI information of SCell #1 and SCell #2 may be transmitted based on different report configurations.

In the present disclosure, a report configuration may be configured as described in the following tables.

TABLE 25 {circle around (1)} SCell#1: CSI-ReportConfig :: = {  

  ReportConfigID 0  

  Carrier 0  

  resourcesForChannelMeasurement = CSI-RS#1 on SCell#1  

  ...  

  ReportConfigType   ✓ semiPersistenOnPUCCH    ReportSlotConfig = slots20 with 0    Pucch-CSI-ResourceList = PUCCH#0   ✓ reportQuantity    cri-RI-CQI  

  ...  }

TABLE 26 {circle around (2)} SCell#2: CSI-ReportConfig :: = {  

  ReportConfigID 0  

  Carrier 0  

  resourcesForChannelMeasurement = CSI-RS#3 on SCell#2  

  ...  

  ReportConfigType   ✓ semiPersistenOnPUCCH    ReportSlotConfig = slots20 with 10    Pucch-CSI-ResourceList = PUCCH#0  

  reportQuantity    cri-RI-CQI  

  ...  }

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram illustrating a CSI reporting method of a UE according to an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12, the UE may transmit CSI information for CSI-RS #1 of SCell #1 and CSI information for CSI-RS #2 of SCell #2 on PUCCH #0 of a PCell based on two report configurations (e.g., RepotConfigID 0 and RepotConfigID 1).

When QCL-D of CORESET #1 is related to CSI-RS #1 of SCell #1 (or when CORSET #1 and CSI-RS #1 are transmitted on the same transmission beam), the UE may not need to report a BF event. This is because the UE periodically reports the state of CSI-RS #1 to the BS and the BS may change the beam before the UE reports/declares the BF event.

However, when QCL-D of CORESET #1 is not related to CSI-RS #1 of SCell #1 (or when CORSET #1 and CSI-RS #1 are transmitted on different transmission beams), the UE may need a separate mechanism for reporting/declaring the BF event. Nonetheless, when the UE is capable of reporting the BF event about CORSET #1 along with a CSI report about CSI-RS #1, dedicated PCell UL resources for reporting the BF event may not be configured separately. As a consequence, the BS may minimize unnecessary configuration/allocation of PCell UL resources for/to the UE.

For this purpose, the following method may be considered.

In the present disclosure, reportQuanity may support a total of 8 modes. For most of the modes, reportQuanity may include an RI and a CQI. However, when ‘CQI index=0’ indicates an invalid CQI, a separate RI may be meaningless for ‘CQI index=0’.

Therefore, according to the present disclosure, upon occurrence of a BF event, the UE may report ‘CQI index=0’ and ‘a specific one of RI values (e.g., the maximum of available RI values)’ to the BS. There is a very low probability that this CQI and RI combination is actually used, and thus the CQI and RI combination may be used for the purpose of reporting/declaring the BF event.

Corresponding to this, when the BS receives CSI having the CQI and RI combination, the BS may identify that the UE has declared BF for the corresponding SCell. In this case, the BS may request additional beam information (e.g., a beam ID and an RSRP) about the SCell to the UE, change the beam of CORSET #1, or switch the related beam to another CORESET (or the BS may provide this configuration to the UE).

The UE and the BS may operate as follows based on the above disclosure.

More specifically, upon occurrence of BF to any SCell, the UE may perform a BFRQ for the any SCell by transmitting a specific combination of a CRI and/or an RI and/or an LI and/or a PMI and/or a CQI index and/or an RSRP index through a CSI report configured for the SCell.

In the present disclosure, the specific combination may vary according to reportQuantity configured by a CSI report configuration.

In a first example, the UE may transmit a BF report/declaration to the BS by using the following combinations, based on reportQuantity including an RI and a CQI.

-   -   CQI index=0 and RI=X (e.g., X is a configurable maximum RI         value. For example, when the configurable maximum RI value is 3,         X=3). Or     -   CQI index=0 (e.g., for a single antenna, the RI field is not         defined).

In a second example, the UE may transmit a BF report/declaration to the BS by using the following combinations, based on reportQuantity including an L1-RSRP.

-   -   RSRP index=0 (e.g., a minimum RSRP value), or     -   RSRP index=98 or larger (e.g., an index for which an RSRP value         is not defined (or a reserved index).

In a third example, the UE may transmit a BF report/declaration to the BS by using the following combinations, based on reportQuantity including an L1-SINR.

-   -   SINR index=0 (e.g., a minimum SINR value), or     -   SINR index=98 or larger (e.g., an index for which an SINR value         is not defined (or a reserved index).

In another example of the present disclosure, for a DL only SCell, the UE may report CC index(es) and/or new beam information (if present) related to BF on a PUCCH or PUSCH.

The information may be transmitted in a MAC CE or in UCI on the PUSCH/PUCCH. For a more specific BFRQ procedure, at least one of the following methods may be considered.

(1) Option 1: At least one of (i) BF-related CC index(es), (ii) new beam information (if present), or (iii) a BF event may be reported in a MAC CE-based single report.

Resources for the MAC CE may not be triggered by a dedicated PUCCH/PRACH for BFR.

(2) Option 2

-   -   Step 1: The UE transmits a BF event.     -   Step 2: The UE reports at least one of (i) new beam information         (if present) or (ii) BF-related CC index(es).

Step 1 may be performed in dedicated PUCCH/PRACH resources.

Step 2 may be performed in a MAC CE or UCI.

(3) Option 3

-   -   Step 1: The UE transmits at least one of (i) a BF event or (ii)         BF-related CC index(es).     -   Step 2: The UE reports new beam information (if present).

Step 2 may be performed in a MAC CE or UCI (e.g., aperiodic CSI).

The PUCCH/PRACH may be used to deliver the BF-related CC index(es) (implicitly). For this purpose, a 1-bit PUCCH or a multi-bit PUCCH may be used.

In the above operations, the BF-related CC index(es) may be selected from among up to N_(max) CCs configured for SCell BFR. N_(max) may be configured by the BS or may be set to a fixed value in a standard specification.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow for a network access and communication process between a UE and a BS, which is applicable to the present disclosure.

A UE may perform a network access process to perform the above-described/proposed procedures and/or methods. For example, the UE may receive system information and configuration information required to perform the above-described/proposed procedures and/or methods and store the received information in a memory. The configuration information required for the present disclosure may be received by higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or MAC signaling).

In an NR system, a physical channel and an RS may be transmitted by beamforming. When beamforming-based signal transmission is supported, beam management may be performed for beam alignment between a BS and a UE. Further, a signal proposed in the present disclosure may be transmitted/received by beamforming. In RRC IDLE mode, beam alignment may be performed based on a synchronization signal block (SSB or SS/PBCH block), whereas in RRC_CONNECTED mode, beam alignment may be performed based on a CSI-RS (in DL) and an SRS (in UL). On the contrary, when beamforming-based signal transmission is not supported, beam-related operations may be omitted in the following description.

Referring to FIG. 13, a BS (e.g., eNB) may periodically transmit an SSB (S1302). The SSB includes a PSS/SSS/PBCH. The SSB may be transmitted by beam sweeping. The BS may then transmit remaining minimum system information (RMSI) and other system information (OSI) (S1304). The RMSI may include information required for the UE to perform initial access to the BS (e.g., PRACH configuration information). After detecting SSBs, the UE identifies the best SSB. Then, the UE may then transmit an RACH preamble (Message 1; Msg1) in PRACH resources linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB (S1306). The beam direction of the RACH preamble is associated with the PRACH resources. Association between PRACH resources (and/or RACH preambles) and SSBs (SSB indexes) may be configured by system information (e.g., RMSI). Subsequently, in an RACH procedure, the BS may transmit a random access response (RAR) (Msg2) in response to the RACH preamble (S1308), the UE may transmit Msg3 (e.g., RRC Connection Request) based on a UL grant included in the RAR (S1310), and the BS may transmit a contention resolution message (Msg4) (S1312). Msg4 may include RRC Connection Setup.

When an RRC connection is established between the BS and the UE in the RACH procedure, beam alignment may subsequently be performed based on an SSB/CSI-RS (in DL) and an SRS (in UL). For example, the UE may receive an SSB/CSI-RS (S1314). The SSB/CSI-RS may be used for the UE to generate a beam/CSI report. The BS may request the UE to transmit a beam/CSI report, by DCI (S1316). In this case, the UE may generate a beam/CSI report based on the SSB/CSI-RS and transmit the generated beam/CSI report to the BS on a PUSCH/PUCCH (S1318). The beam/CSI report may include a beam measurement result, information about a preferred beam, and so on. The BS and the UE may switch beams based on the beam/CSI report (51320 a and 51320 b).

Subsequently, the UE and the BS may perform the above-described/proposed procedures and/or methods. For example, the UE and the BS may transmit a wireless signal by processing information stored in a memory or may process received wireless signal and store the processed signal in the memory according to the present disclosure, based on configuration information obtained in the network access process (e.g., the system information acquisition process, the RRC connection process through an RACH, and so on). The wireless signal may include at least one of a PDCCH, a PDSCH, or an RS on DL and at least one of a PUCCH, a PUSCH, or an SRS on UL.

FIG. 14 is a simplified diagram illustrating a discontinuous (DRX) cycle applicable to the present disclosure. In FIG. 14, the UE may be in an RRC_CONNECTED state.

In the present disclosure, the UE may perform a DRX operation in the afore-described/proposed procedures and/or methods. When the UE is configured with DRX, the UE may reduce power consumption by receiving a DL signal discontinuously. DRX may be performed in an RRC IDLE state, an RRC_INACTIVE state, and an RRC_CONNECTED state. In the RRC IDLE state and the RRC_INACTIVE state, DRX is used to receive a paging signal discontinuously. DRX in the RRC_CONNECTED state will be described below (RRC_CONNECTED DRX).

Referring to FIG. 14, a DRX cycle includes an On Duration and an Opportunity for DRX. The DRX cycle defines a time duration in which On Duration is periodically repeated. The On Duration is a time period during which the UE monitors a PDCCH. When the UE is configured with DRX, the UE performs PDCCH monitoring during the On Duration. When the UE successfully detects a PDCCH during the PDCCH monitoring, the UE starts an inactivity timer and is kept awake. On the contrary, when the UE fails in detecting any PDCCH during the PDCCH monitoring, the UE enters to a sleep state after the On Duration ends. Accordingly, when DRX is configured, the UE may perform PDCCH monitoring/reception discontinuously in the time domain in the afore-described procedures and/or methods. For example, when DRX is configured, PDCCH reception occasions (e.g., slots with PDCCH search spaces) may be configured discontinuously according to a DRX configuration in the present disclosure. On the contrary, when DRX is not configured, the UE may perform PDCCH monitoring/reception continuously in the time domain in the afore-described procedures and/or methods according to implementation(s). For example, when DRX is not configured, PDCCH reception occasions (e.g., slots with PDCCH search spaces) may be configured continuously in the present disclosure. Irrespective of whether DRX is configured, PDCCH monitoring may be restricted during a time period configured as a measurement gap.

TABLE 27 Type of signals UE procedure 1^(st) step RRC signalling Receive DRX (MAC-CellGroupConfig) configuration information 2^(nd) Step MAC CE Receive DRX command ((Long) DRX command MAC CE) 3^(rd) Step — Monitor a PDCCH during an on-duration of a DRX cycle

Table 27 describes a DRX operation of a UE (in the RRC_CONNECTED state). Referring to Table 27, DRX configuration information is received by higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), and DRX ON/OFF is controlled by a DRX command from the MAC layer. Once DRX is configured, the UE may perform PDCCH monitoring discontinuously in performing the afore-described procedures and/or methods according to the present disclosure, as illustrated in FIG. 14.

MAC-CellGroupConfig includes configuration information required to configure MAC parameters for a cell group. MAC-CellGroupConfig may also include DRX configuration information. For example, MAC-CellGroupConfig may include the following information in defining DRX.

-   -   Value of drx-OnDurationTimer: defines the duration of the         starting period of the DRX cycle.     -   Value of drx-InactivityTimer: defines the duration of a time         period during which the UE is awake after a PDCCH occasion in         which a PDCCH indicating initial UL or DL data has been         detected.     -   Value of drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL: defines the duration of a maximum         time period until a DL retransmission is received after         reception of a DL initial transmission.     -   Value of drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL: defines the duration of a maximum         time period until a grant for a UL retransmission is received         after reception of a grant for a UL initial transmission.     -   drx-LongCycleStartOffset: defines the duration and starting time         of a DRX cycle.     -   drx-ShortCycle (optional): defines the duration of a short DRX         cycle.

When any of drx-OnDurationTimer, drx-InactivityTimer, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL, and drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL is running, the UE performs PDCCH monitoring in each PDCCH occasion, staying in the awake state.

FIG. 15 is a simplified diagram illustrating operations of a UE and a BS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the UE according to an example of the present disclosure, and FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the BS according to an example of the present disclosure.

In the present disclosure, the UE may be connected to one PCell and one or more SCells. Alternatively, the BS may configure one PCell and one or more SCells for the UE.

In the present disclosure, the PCell may be extended to a PSCell that controls a specific cell group and/or an SCell (e.g., PUCCH-SCell) designated to configure a PUCCH for the purpose of transmitting UCI for a plurality of SCells in a specific cell, in a dual connectivity situation.

The UE may detect occurrence of BF in a first SCell among the one or more SCells (S1510 and S1610).

Subsequently, the UE may report the BF of the first SCell to the BS by transmitting CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell to the BS in UL resources configured for reporting CSI of the first SCell (S1520 and S1620).

The BS may receive the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell among the one or more SCells from the UE in the UL resources configured for reporting CSI of the first SCell (S1520 and S1710). Subsequently, the BS may identify the occurrence of BF in the first SCell based on the CSI information (S1530 and S1730).

In the above configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may be configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.

In the present disclosure, the configured uplink resources may include PUCCH resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell.

In the present disclosure, the configured uplink resources may include PUSCH resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell.

In the present disclosure, the UL resources may be configured on a UL carrier of the PCell.

In the present disclosure, when an RI and a CQI are included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include (i) a CQI index having a specific value and (ii) an RI having a configurable maximum value.

In the present disclosure, when a CQI is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include a CQI index having a specific value. The specific value may include “0”.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-RSRP is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an RSRP index having a minimum value.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-RSRP is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an RSRP index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-SINR is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an SINR index having a minimum value.

In the present disclosure, when an L1-SINR is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell may include an SINR index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.

In the present disclosure, the first SCell may include an SCell configured for the UE, for DL reception and UL transmission or an SCell configured for the UE, for DL reception only.

In the present disclosure, the detection of occurrence of BF in a first SCell may include declaring one occurrence of a BF instance by the physical layer of the UE, based on the quality of all PDCCH signals related to the first SCell being equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and declaring BF by the MAC layer of the UE, based on a predetermined number of occurrences of the BF instance.

Examples of the above-described proposed methods may also be included as one of the implementation methods of the present disclosure, and thus may be considered to be some proposed methods. While the proposed methods may be independently implemented, some of the proposed methods may be combined (or merged). It may be regulated that information indicating whether to apply the proposed methods (or information about the rules of the proposed methods) is indicated by a signal (e.g., a physical-layer signal or a higher-layer signal) predefined for the UE by the BS.

3. Example of Communication System to which Present Disclosure is Applied

The various descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts of the present disclosure described herein may be applied to, but not limited to, various fields requiring wireless communication/connectivity (e.g., 5G) between devices.

More specific examples will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings/description, like reference numerals denote the same or corresponding hardware blocks, software blocks, or function blocks, unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 18 illustrates a communication system 1 applied to the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 18, the communication system 1 applied to the present disclosure includes wireless devices, BSs, and a network. A wireless device is a device performing communication using radio access technology (RAT) (e.g., 5G NR (or New RAT) or LTE), also referred to as a communication/radio/5G device. The wireless devices may include, not limited to, a robot 100 a, vehicles 100 b-1 and 100 b-2, an extended reality (XR) device 100 c, a hand-held device 100 d, a home appliance 100 e, an IoT device 100 f, and an artificial intelligence (AI) device/server 400. For example, the vehicles may include a vehicle having a wireless communication function, an autonomous driving vehicle, and a vehicle capable of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Herein, the vehicles may include an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (e.g., a drone). The XR device may include an augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)/mixed reality (MR) device and may be implemented in the form of a head-mounted device (HMD), a head-up display (HUD) mounted in a vehicle, a television (TV), a smartphone, a computer, a wearable device, a home appliance, a digital signage, a vehicle, a robot, and so on. The hand-held device may include a smartphone, a smart pad, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch or smart glasses), and a computer (e.g., a laptop). The home appliance may include a TV, a refrigerator, a washing machine, and so on. The IoT device may include a sensor, a smart meter, and so on. For example, the BSs and the network may be implemented as wireless devices, and a specific wireless device 200 a may operate as a BS/network node for other wireless devices.

The wireless devices 100 a to 100 f may be connected to the network 300 via the BSs 200. An AI technology may be applied to the wireless devices 100 a to 100 f, and the wireless devices 100 a to 100 f may be connected to the AI server 400 via the network 300. The network 300 may be configured using a 3G network, a 4G (e.g., LTE) network, or a 5G (e.g., NR) network. Although the wireless devices 100 a to 100 f may communicate with each other through the BSs 200/network 300, the wireless devices 100 a to 100 f may perform direct communication (e.g., sidelink communication) with each other without intervention of the BSs/network. For example, the vehicles 100 b-1 and 100 b-2 may perform direct communication (e.g. V2V/vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication). The IoT device (e.g., a sensor) may perform direct communication with other IoT devices (e.g., sensors) or other wireless devices 100 a to 100 f.

Wireless communication/connections 150 a, 150 b, and 150 c may be established between the wireless devices 100 a to 100 f/BS 200 and between the BSs 200. Herein, the wireless communication/connections may be established through various RATs (e.g., 5G NR) such as UL/DL communication 150 a, sidelink communication 150 b (or, D2D communication), or inter-BS communication (e.g. relay or integrated access backhaul (IAB)). Wireless signals may be transmitted and received between the wireless devices, between the wireless devices and the BSs, and between the BSs through the wireless communication/connections 150 a, 150 b, and 150 c. For example, signals may be transmitted and receive don various physical channels through the wireless communication/connections 150 a, 150 b and 150 c. To this end, at least a part of various configuration information configuring processes, various signal processing processes (e.g., channel encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and resource mapping/demapping), and resource allocation processes, for transmitting/receiving wireless signals, may be performed based on the various proposals of the present disclosure.

4. Example of Wireless Device to which Present Disclosure is Applied

FIG. 19 illustrates wireless devices applicable to the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 19, a first wireless device 100 and a second wireless device 200 may transmit wireless signals through a variety of RATs (e.g., LTE and NR). {The first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to {the wireless device 100 x and the BS 200} and/or {the wireless device 100 x and the wireless device 100 x} of FIG. 20.

The first wireless device 100 may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104, and further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. The processor(s) 102 may control the memory(s) 104 and/or the transceiver(s) 106 and may be configured to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document. For example, the processor(s) 102 may process information in the memory(s) 104 to generate first information/signals and then transmit wireless signals including the first information/signals through the transceiver(s) 106. The processor(s) 102 may receive wireless signals including second information/signals through the transceiver(s) 106 and then store information obtained by processing the second information/signals in the memory(s) 104. The memory(s) 104 may be connected to the processor(s) 102 and may store various pieces of information related to operations of the processor(s) 102. For example, the memory(s) 104 may store software code including instructions for performing all or a part of processes controlled by the processor(s) 102 or for performing the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document. The processor(s) 102 and the memory(s) 104 may be a part of a communication modem/circuit/chip designed to implement RAT (e.g., LTE or NR). The transceiver(s) 106 may be connected to the processor(s) 102 and transmit and/or receive wireless signals through the one or more antennas 108. Each of the transceiver(s) 106 may include a transmitter and/or a receiver. The transceiver(s) 106 may be interchangeably used with radio frequency (RF) unit(s). In the present disclosure, the wireless device may be a communication modem/circuit/chip.

The second wireless device 200 may include one or more processors 202 and one or more memories 204, and further include one or more transceivers 206 and/or one or more antennas 208. The processor(s) 202 may control the memory(s) 204 and/or the transceiver(s) 206 and may be configured to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document. For example, the processor(s) 202 may process information in the memory(s) 204 to generate third information/signals and then transmit wireless signals including the third information/signals through the transceiver(s) 206. The processor(s) 202 may receive wireless signals including fourth information/signals through the transceiver(s) 106 and then store information obtained by processing the fourth information/signals in the memory(s) 204. The memory(s) 204 may be connected to the processor(s) 202 and store various pieces of information related to operations of the processor(s) 202. For example, the memory(s) 204 may store software code including instructions for performing all or a part of processes controlled by the processor(s) 202 or for performing the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document. The processor(s) 202 and the memory(s) 204 may be a part of a communication modem/circuit/chip designed to implement RAT (e.g., LTE or NR). The transceiver(s) 206 may be connected to the processor(s) 202 and transmit and/or receive wireless signals through the one or more antennas 208. Each of the transceiver(s) 206 may include a transmitter and/or a receiver. The transceiver(s) 206 may be interchangeably used with RF unit(s). In the present disclosure, the wireless device may be a communication modem/circuit/chip.

Now, hardware elements of the wireless devices 100 and 200 will be described in greater detail. One or more protocol layers may be implemented by, not limited to, one or more processors 102 and 202. For example, the one or more processors 102 and 202 may implement one or more layers (e.g., functional layers such as physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), RRC, and service data adaptation protocol (SDAP)). The one or more processors 102 and 202 may generate one or more protocol data units (PDUs) and/or one or more service data Units (SDUs) according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may generate messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document and provide the messages, control information, data, or information to one or more transceivers 106 and 206. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may generate signals (e.g., baseband signals) including PDUs, SDUs, messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document and provide the generated signals to the one or more transceivers 106 and 206. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may receive the signals (e.g., baseband signals) from the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 and acquire the PDUs, SDUs, messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document.

The one or more processors 102 and 202 may be referred to as controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or microcomputers. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), one or more programmable logic devices (PLDs), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) may be included in the one or more processors 102 and 202. The descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document may be implemented using firmware or software, and the firmware or software may be configured to include the modules, procedures, or functions. Firmware or software configured to perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document may be included in the one or more processors 102 and 202 or may be stored in the one or more memories 104 and 204 and executed by the one or more processors 102 and 202. The descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document may be implemented using firmware or software in the form of code, an instruction, and/or a set of instructions.

The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 and store various types of data, signals, messages, information, programs, code, instructions, and/or commands. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be configured to include read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), flash memories, hard drives, registers, cash memories, computer-readable storage media, and/or combinations thereof. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be located at the interior and/or exterior of the one or more processors 102 and 202. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 through various technologies such as wired or wireless connection.

The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may transmit user data, control information, and/or wireless signals/channels, mentioned in the methods and/or operation flowcharts of this document, to one or more other devices. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may receive user data, control information, and/or wireless signals/channels, mentioned in the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document, from one or more other devices. For example, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 and transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, the one or more processors 102 and 202 may perform control so that the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may transmit user data, control information, or wireless signals to one or more other devices. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may perform control so that the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may receive user data, control information, or wireless signals from one or more other devices. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be connected to the one or more antennas 108 and 208 and the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be configured to transmit and receive user data, control information, and/or wireless signals/channels, mentioned in the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operation flowcharts disclosed in this document, through the one or more antennas 108 and 208. In this document, the one or more antennas may be a plurality of physical antennas or a plurality of logical antennas (e.g., antenna ports). The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may convert received wireless signals/channels from RF band signals into baseband signals in order to process received user data, control information, and wireless signals/channels using the one or more processors 102 and 202. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may convert the user data, control information, and wireless signals/channels processed using the one or more processors 102 and 202 from the baseband signals into the RF band signals. To this end, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may include (analog) oscillators and/or filters.

5. Use Case of Wireless Device to Which Present Disclosure is Applied

FIG. 20 illustrates another example of a wireless device applied to the present disclosure. The wireless device may be implemented in various forms according to a use case/service (refer to FIG. 18).

Referring to FIG. 20, wireless devices 100 and 200 may correspond to the wireless devices 100 and 200 of FIG. 19 and may be configured to include various elements, components, units/portions, and/or modules. For example, each of the wireless devices 100 and 200 may include a communication unit 110, a control unit 120, a memory unit 130, and additional components 140. The communication unit 110 may include a communication circuit 112 and transceiver(s) 114. For example, the communication circuit 112 may include the one or more processors 102 and 202 and/or the one or more memories 104 and 204 of FIG. 21. For example, the transceiver(s) 114 may include the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 and/or the one or more antennas 108 and 208 of FIG. 20. The control unit 120 is electrically connected to the communication unit 110, the memory 130, and the additional components 140 and provides overall control to the wireless device. For example, the control unit 120 may control an electric/mechanical operation of the wireless device based on programs/code/instructions/information stored in the memory unit 130. The control unit 120 may transmit the information stored in the memory unit 130 to the outside (e.g., other communication devices) via the communication unit 110 through a wireless/wired interface or store, in the memory unit 130, information received through the wireless/wired interface from the outside (e.g., other communication devices) via the communication unit 110.

The additional components 140 may be configured in various manners according to type of the wireless device. For example, the additional components 140 may include at least one of a power unit/battery, input/output (I/O) unit, a driving unit, and a computing unit. The wireless device may be implemented in the form of, not limited to, the robot (100 a of FIG. 18), the vehicles (100 b-1 and 100 b-2 of FIG. 18), the XR device (100 c of FIG. 18), the hand-held device (100 d of FIG. 18), the home appliance (100 e of FIG. 18), the IoT device (100 f of FIG. 18), a digital broadcasting terminal, a hologram device, a public safety device, an MTC device, a medical device, a FinTech device (or a finance device), a security device, a climate/environment device, the AI server/device (400 of FIG. 18), the BS s (200 of FIG. 18), a network node, or the like. The wireless device may be mobile or fixed according to a use case/service.

In FIG. 20, all of the various elements, components, units/portions, and/or modules in the wireless devices 100 and 200 may be connected to each other through a wired interface or at least a part thereof may be wirelessly connected through the communication unit 110. For example, in each of the wireless devices 100 and 200, the control unit 120 and the communication unit 110 may be connected by wire and the control unit 120 and first units (e.g., 130 and 140) may be wirelessly connected through the communication unit 110. Each element, component, unit/portion, and/or module in the wireless devices 100 and 200 may further include one or more elements. For example, the control unit 120 may be configured with a set of one or more processors. For example, the control unit 120 may be configured with a set of a communication control processor, an application processor, an electronic control unit (ECU), a graphical processing unit, and a memory control processor. In another example, the memory 130 may be configured with a RAM, a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a ROM, a flash memory, a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and/or a combination thereof.

Hereinafter, the implementation example of FIG. 20 will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

5.1. Example of a Hand-held Device to Which Present Disclosure is Applied

FIG. 21 illustrates a hand-held device applied to the present disclosure. The hand-held device may include a smartphone, a smartpad, a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch or smartglasses), or a portable computer (e.g., a notebook). The hand-held device may be referred to as a mobile station (MS), a user terminal (UT), a mobile subscriber station (MSS), a subscriber station (SS), an advanced mobile station (AMS), or a wireless terminal (WT).

Referring to FIG. 21, a hand-held device 100 may include an antenna unit 108, a communication unit 110, a control unit 120, a memory unit 130, a power supply unit 140 a, an interface unit 140 b, and an input/output (I/O) unit 140 c. The antenna unit 108 may be configured as a part of the communication unit 110. Blocks 110 to 130/140 a to 140 c correspond to the blocks 110 to 130/140 of FIG. 18, respectively.

The communication unit 110 may transmit and receive signals (e.g., data and control signals) to and from other wireless devices or BSs. The control unit 120 may perform various operations by controlling constituent elements of the hand-held device 100. The control unit 120 may include an application processor (AP). The memory unit 130 may store data/parameters/programs/code/instructions needed to drive the hand-held device 100. The memory unit 130 may also store input/output data/information. The power supply unit 140 a may supply power to the hand-held device 100 and include a wired/wireless charging circuit, a battery, etc. The interface unit 140 b may support connection of the hand-held device 100 to other external devices. The interface unit 140 b may include various ports (e.g., an audio I/O port and a video I/O port) for connection to external devices. The I/O unit 140 c may input or output video information/signals, audio information/signals, data, and/or information input by a user. The I/O unit 140 c may include a camera, a microphone, a user input unit, a display unit 140 d, a speaker, and/or a haptic module.

As an example, in the case of data communication, the I/O unit 140 c may acquire information/signals (e.g., touch, text, voice, images, or video) input by a user and the acquired information/signals may be stored in the memory unit 130. The communication unit 110 may covert the information/signals stored in the memory into radio signals and transmit the converted radio signals to other wireless devices directly or to the BS. The communication unit 110 may receive radio signals from other wireless devices or the BS and then restore the received radio signals into original information/signals. The restored information/signals may be stored in the memory unit 130 and may be output as various types (e.g., text, voice, image, video, or haptic type) through the I/O unit 140 c.

5.2. Example of Vehicle or Autonomous Driving Vehicle to Which Present Disclosure is Applied

FIG. 22 illustrates a vehicle or an autonomous driving vehicle applied to the present disclosure. The vehicle or autonomous driving vehicle may be implemented as a mobile robot, a car, a train, a manned/unmanned aerial vehicle (AV), a ship, or the like.

Referring to FIG. 22, a vehicle or autonomous driving vehicle 100 may include an antenna unit 108, a communication unit 110, a control unit 120, a driving unit 140 a, a power supply unit 140 b, a sensor unit 140 c, and an autonomous driving unit 140 d. The antenna unit 108 may be configured as a part of the communication unit 110. The blocks 110/130/140 a to 140 d correspond to the blocks 110/130/140 of FIG. 21, respectively.

The communication unit 110 may transmit and receive signals (e.g., data and control signals) to and from external devices such as other vehicles, BSs (e.g., gNBs and road side units), and servers. The control unit 120 may perform various operations by controlling elements of the vehicle or the autonomous driving vehicle 100. The control unit 120 may include an ECU. The driving unit 140 a may enable the vehicle or the autonomous driving vehicle 100 to drive on a road. The driving unit 140 a may include an engine, a motor, a powertrain, a wheel, a brake, a steering device, and so on. The power supply unit 140 b may supply power to the vehicle or the autonomous driving vehicle 100 and include a wired/wireless charging circuit, a battery, and so on. The sensor unit 140 c may acquire information about a vehicle state, ambient environment information, user information, and so on. The sensor unit 140 c may include an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, a collision sensor, a wheel sensor, a speed sensor, a slope sensor, a weight sensor, a heading sensor, a position module, a vehicle forward/backward sensor, a battery sensor, a fuel sensor, a tire sensor, a steering sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an illumination sensor, a pedal position sensor, and so on. The autonomous driving unit 140 d may implement technology for maintaining a lane on which the vehicle is driving, technology for automatically adjusting speed, such as adaptive cruise control, technology for autonomously driving along a determined path, technology for driving by automatically setting a route if a destination is set, and the like.

For example, the communication unit 110 may receive map data, traffic information data, and so on from an external server. The autonomous driving unit 140 d may generate an autonomous driving route and a driving plan from the obtained data. The control unit 120 may control the driving unit 140 a such that the vehicle or autonomous driving vehicle 100 may move along the autonomous driving route according to the driving plan (e.g., speed/direction control). During autonomous driving, the communication unit 110 may aperiodically/periodically acquire recent traffic information data from the external server and acquire surrounding traffic information data from neighboring vehicles. During autonomous driving, the sensor unit 140 c may obtain information about a vehicle state and/or surrounding environment information. The autonomous driving unit 140 d may update the autonomous driving route and the driving plan based on the newly obtained data/information. The communication unit 110 may transfer information about a vehicle position, the autonomous driving route, and/or the driving plan to the external server. The external server may predict traffic information data using AI technology based on the information collected from vehicles or autonomous driving vehicles and provide the predicted traffic information data to the vehicles or the autonomous driving vehicles.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure may be carried out in other specific ways than those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the present disclosure. The above embodiments are therefore to be construed in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the disclosure should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, not by the above description, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to various wireless access systems including a 3GPP system, and/or a 3GPP2 system. The embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable not only to the various wireless access systems but also to all technical fields to which the wireless access systems are applied. Furthermore, the proposed methods may also be applied to a millimeter wave (mmWave) communication system using an ultra-high frequency band.

Additionally, the embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to various applications such as an autonomous-driving vehicle, a drone, etc. 

1. A method of reporting beam failure (BF) by a user equipment (UE) connected to one primary cell (PCell) and at least one secondary cell (SCell) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: detecting occurrence of BF in a first SCell among the at least one SCell; and reporting the BF of the first SCell by transmitting, to a base station (BS), channel state information (CSI) information related to the BF of the first SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell, wherein the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the configured uplink resources include physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the configured uplink resources include physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the uplink resources are configured on an uplink carrier of the PCell.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a rank indicator (RI) and a channel quality indicator (CQI) are included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes (i) a CQI index having a specific value and (ii) an RI having a configurable maximum value.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a CQI is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes a CQI index having a specific value.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a layer 1-reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes an RSRP index having a minimum value.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein when an L1-RSRP is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes an RSRP index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.
 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a layer 1-signal to interference noise ratio (L1-SINR) is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes an SINR index having a minimum value.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein when an L1-SINR is included in the CSI report configuration, the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell includes an SINR index related to occurrence of BF in a specific SCell.
 11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first SCell includes an SCell configured for the UE, for downlink reception and uplink transmission or an SCell configured for the UE, for downlink reception only.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detection of occurrence of BF in a first SCell comprises: declaring one occurrence of a BF instance by a physical layer of the UE, based on the quality of all physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signals related to the first SCell being equal to or less than a predetermined threshold; and declaring BF by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, based on a predetermined number of occurrences of the BF instance.
 13. A user equipment (UE) operating based on one primary cell (PCell) and at least one secondary cell (SCell) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: at least one transmitter; at least one receiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions which when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform a specific operation, wherein the specific operation includes: detecting occurrence of beam failure (BF) in a first SCell among the at least one SCell; and reporting the BF of the first SCell by transmitting, to a base station (BS), channel state information (CSI) information related to the BF of the first SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell, and wherein the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration.
 14. The UE according to claim 13, wherein the UE communicates with at least one of a mobile terminal, a network, or an autonomous driving vehicle other than a vehicle including the UE.
 15. A base station (BS) including one primary cell (PCell) and at least one secondary cell (SCell) in a wireless communication system, the BS comprising: at least one transmitter; at least one receiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions which when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform a specific operation, wherein the specific operation includes: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), channel state information (CSI) information related to beam failure (BF) of a first SCell among the at least one SCell in uplink resources configured for CSI reporting of the first SCell; and identifying occurrence of the BF of the first SCell based on the CSI information, and wherein the CSI information related to the BF of the first SCell is configured differently according to a CSI report configuration. 